14 DAY TRIAL // The 3rd quarter of 2008 has seen the lowest ever year-on-year growth regarding the smartphone business. Many of the most important, and even the giants in mobile devices, have registered important decreases in sale, as compared with the numbers of the same period of last year, or with the 2nd quarter of 2008.
According to Gartner, this is a consequence of the difficult financial times we are struggling with and although losses were not expected to be registered so fast, it seems that the world crisis is reflected in the way higher-end mobile devices sell as well.
Although, this quarter, over 36 million smartphones have been sold, and this number translates into an 11.5% increase over the same period of last year, the 2nd quarter also registered a 16% increase over the same period of last year. Normally, the expectancy for the quarter in question should have surpassed the numbers of the previous quarter. While that has failed to happen, for the time being, things are not that bad, with reports saying that the smartphone business is still going to grow, only at a slower pace.
The most unproductive companies have been Nokia, the biggest mobile manufacturer ever, and the Symbian platform that has registered a significant decrease in sales. On the other hand, Apple has quadrupled its sales as opposed to the same period of last year, which is not such a shocking feat anymore considering the iPhone's success worldwide. Apple sold more than 4.7 million phones and its market share numbers are now at about 12.9%.
This is the first time ever when Windows Mobile devices are “outsmarted” by Apple and RIM, the latter also boasting a significant increase thanks to its BlackBerry mobiles. Given the fact that Windows Mobile lost about three percent, and that RIM still maintains a bigger market share than Apple (15.9%), even though its sales have not increased that considerably, the two companies represent a great threat in terms of monopolizing the market, unless something is done soon. This is all the more probable especially when considering the iPhone's ever-growing popularity and BlackBerry's 81.7% increase, with more believed to come soon thanks to the Storm.
Looking on the downside of things now, as noted above, Nokia has not had the success it has been enjoying for many years now, and that is mainly because it lacks touchscreen devices. Thus, Nokia sales dropped to 15.2 million phones, but thanks to the newly launched N97, experts are now saying that the situation will be soon remedied.
Things stand about the same for Symbian, which has lost a lot more than Nokia, with about a 12% decrease. However, now that the Symbian Foundation is almost “up and running,” things might just improve significantly.