Apple's iPhone outpaces smartphone market growth rate by 12x

Posted:
in iPhone edited January 2014
A massive iPhone shipment increase of 141.8 percent year over year gave Apple a growth rate more than 12 times that of the global mobile phone market in the second quarter, leaving the company poised to overtake LG as the No. 3 handset maker in the world.



IDC released the results of its quarterly Worldwide Mobile Phone Tracker on Thursday, noting that the worldwide mobile phone market grew 11.3 percent year over year. In fact, without taking Apple into account, the global market grew just 7.8 percent. The research group had forecast 13.3 percent growth for the quarter.



Apple's record shipments of 20.3 million were enough to give it a 5.6 percent share of the market, up from 2.6 percent a year ago. The iPhone maker maintained the fourth-place spot that it achieved last quarter, while climbing within striking distance of third-place LG, whose shipments fell 18.9 percent to 24.8 million.



Despite a 20 percent decline in shipments from a year ago, Nokia managed to hang onto the top spot among mobile vendors with second quarter market share of 24.2 percent and shipments of 88.5 million. Samsung's modest 10 percent growth fell behind the market, leaving it with 19.2 percent of the market.



Rounding out the top five was Chinese handset maker ZTE, which grew to 4.5 percent of the market on shipments of 16.6 million phones.



Source: IDC, Worldwide Mobile Phone Tracker



Analysts with the firm noted a contracting feature phone market as the smartphone has gained traction around the world. Year over year, feature phone shipments fell by 4 percent, the first decline since the third quarter of 2009.



"The shrinking feature phone market is having the greatest impact on some of the world?s largest suppliers of mobile phones," said IDC senior research analyst Kevin Restivo. "Stalwarts such as Nokia are losing share in the feature phone category to low-cost suppliers such as Micromax, TCL-Alcatel, and Huawei."



The Cupertino, Calif., company "thrived in China" due to strong demand for the iPhone 4, the report pointed out, while adding that the company's ability to "bring its smartphone momentum to developing economies" will dictate its "smartphone fortunes" in the future.



"For the overall market to grow by double digits year over year, despite the decline in feature phones, is testament to the strength of the global smartphone market," noted Ramon Llamas, senior research analyst with the firm's Mobile Phone Technology and Trends team. "While this is not a new trend ? smartphones have been the primary engine of growth for the last several quarters ? it does mark something of a transition point, as demonstrated by the growing number and variety of smartphones featured in the vendors' portfolios."

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 5
    cpsrocpsro Posts: 3,198member
    How is Apple going to overtake LG when the Apple Store is down?
  • Reply 2 of 5
    mdriftmeyermdriftmeyer Posts: 7,503member
    Apple sells only full-featured Smart phones.



    Show me charts against the rest of the field in that market. Nokia's dumb phones/disposable phones with basic smartphone capabilities should not be in the same market when drawing comparisons.
  • Reply 3 of 5
    smalmsmalm Posts: 677member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by AppleInsider View Post


    A massive iPhone shipment increase of 141.8 percent year over year gave Apple a growth rate more than 12 times that of the global mobile phone market in the second quarter



    You compare Apple's growth with the growth of the whole market with Apple in it.

    To show the real picture you need to compare Apple with the rest of the market.



    Apple grew from 8.4 mio to 20.3 mio = 141.6%

    All others grew from 320.0 mio to 345.1 mio = 7.8%



    Apple grew 18 times faster than the rest of the market!
  • Reply 4 of 5
    constable odoconstable odo Posts: 1,041member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by mdriftmeyer View Post


    Apple sells only full-featured Smart phones.



    Show me charts against the rest of the field in that market. Nokia's dumb phones/disposable phones with basic smartphone capabilities should not be in the same market when drawing comparisons.



    Those jackass Wall Street clowns think that market share is everything, no matter how little profits are generated from dumbphone sales. What's Nokia's share price now? About $6. About how many layoffs are coming? Thousands. Yeah, market share is everything. Hey, Wall Street meatsacks, you need to wake up to reality.
  • Reply 5 of 5
    cloudgazercloudgazer Posts: 2,161member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by mdriftmeyer View Post


    Apple sells only full-featured Smart phones.



    Show me charts against the rest of the field in that market. Nokia's dumb phones/disposable phones with basic smartphone capabilities should not be in the same market when drawing comparisons.



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Constable Odo View Post


    Those jackass Wall Street clowns think that market share is everything, no matter how little profits are generated from dumbphone sales. What's Nokia's share price now? About $6. About how many layoffs are coming? Thousands. Yeah, market share is everything. Hey, Wall Street meatsacks, you need to wake up to reality.



    These numbers are still useful though. Nobody is saying that they're the only numbers that we should look at, but they are still good numbers.
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