14 DAY TRIAL // The smartphone segment of the market is registering increasing growth, and companies focused mainly on this area are reportedly gaining a bigger share on the global mobile phone market. According to a recent report from iSuppli, RIM and Apple managed to rise up to the fifth and sixth place on the worldwide market (for all types of cell phones) during the first quarter of the ongoing year, while Motorola was thrown all the way to the eight position.
Canadian smartphone maker Research In Motion offers only BlackBerry devices, and managed to score the highest on the Top 10 cell phone brands during the time frame. Moreover, the company's shipments went up by 364,000 units (or 3.6 percent) when compared to the previous quarter. Although the industry registered a slowdown, RIM went up, something that helped it reach the fifth place on the global mobile phone market, up from the eighth position it held in Q4 2009.
According to iSuppli, Apple managed to ship 8.8 million mobile handsets during the three-month period, managing to account for 3.04 percent share of the global cell phone market. The company's shipments went up 0.2 percent when compared to the fourth quarter of the previous year, which sent it to the sixth place in the top, up from the ninth it held a quarter ago. The research firm notes that Apple's sequential increase was the second among Top 10 brands.
RIM and Apple were the only smartphone brands in Top 10 to register sequential growth. In comparison, Motorola registered a 29.2 percent decline in shipments during the time frame, reaching only 8.5 million units, down from the 12 million it managed to ship in Q4 2009. The company went down to the eighth position, behind RIM, Apple and Chinese handset OEM ZTE Co. Ltd.
“Smart phones represent the hottest segment of the cell phone market, with unit shipment growth of 35.5 percent expected in 2010, compared to 11.3 percent for the overall mobile handset business,” noted Tina Teng, senior analyst, wireless communications, for iSuppli. “Because of this, companies that are exclusively focused on this area, like RIM and Apple, have managed to move up to near the top-tier of the global cell phone business. This shows that the smart phone is reshaping the competitive landscape of the wireless business.”
Worldwide cell phone shipments diminished in Q1 2010 when compared to the previous quarter, reaching 288.1 million units, down 13.9 percent from 334.6 million in Q4 2009. However, they went up by 13.8 percent on a yearly basis. Nokia remained leader with 37.4 percent market share, down from 37.9 percent a year ago, while Samsung increased its share to 22.3 percent from 20.6 percent in Q1 2009. LG came in on the third spot with 9.4 percent of the market, followed by Sony Ericsson with 3.6 percent, which suffered a 28.1 percent decline in shipments.