iPhone behind only Nokia and RIM in global smartphone share
Apple maintained the third place position in global unit sales of smartphones, but was passed up by Microsoft's Windows Mobile to become the fourth largest smartphone vendor in terms of operating system platforms as it continues to lead the industry in year over year growth.
Market research firm Gartner released a quarterly report this morning that warned worldwide smartphone sales had slowed to the industry's lowest growth rate ever, just 3.7 percent, in the last quarter of 2008.
"After a strong third quarter with new product introductions, sequential growth slowed down again in the fourth quarter as fewer compelling new products and the worsened economic climate continued to make data plans associated with smartphones out of reach for most consumers," said Gartner research director Roberta Cozza. "In general in 2008, the focus from vendors and operators on increasing their smartphone portfolios remained very strong. Samsung, RIM, HTC and Apple saw their volumes and share increase during 2008, thanks to their ability to offer compelling device experiences and touch interfaces."
Smartphone device share
In terms of units sold by manufacturer, Nokia still clings to its shrinking lead among smartphones; the company's quarterly change of -16.8 percent was the most severe market share retraction of any single handset maker, however.
Apple stands in a strong third place behind Nokia and second place RIM after achieving 111.6 percent year-over-year growth as it brought the iPhone 3G into new markets internationally. Samsung entered the top five vendors for the first time.
"Apple's initial sell-through dropped significantly as sales fell during the fourth quarter," Gartner said. "Nevertheless, Apple maintained its third position in the global rankings."
Worldwide Smartphone Sales to End Users by Vendor, 4Q08 (Thousands of Units)
Smartphones by OS share
In the summer (third) quarter of last year, at the launch of the iPhone 3G, Apple took a 12.9 percent share of the worldwide market for smartphones, moving the iPhone's OS ahead of the global shipments of all smartphones based on Microsoft's Windows Mobile by 1.8 percentage points. In the fourth quarter, the iPhone 3G slipped back down to fourth place, behind the sum of all manufacturers using Windows Mobile, with 10.7 percent share of all smartphones. However, Apple has more than doubled its previous fourth-quarter share from 2007 of 5.2 percent.
Worldwide Smartphone Sales to End Users by Operating System, 4Q08 (Thousands of Units)
Windows Mobile, which Gartner said was helped by the Samsung Omnia and touchscreen products from HTC, took back the third-place ranking with a 12.4 percent share. Symbian, which lost 21.6 percent year-over-year, remains in first place ahead of Research In Motion.
Moving away from individual quarters to look at the entire year, Apple has enjoyed a whopping 245.7 percent growth when comparing 2008 against 2007, easily trouncing its closest competitor RIM (96.7 percent).
Worldwide Smartphone Sales to End Users by Operating System, 2008 (Thousands of Units)
As rumors swirl about more flexible plan pricing from Apple's US partner AT&T, a possible iPhone deal in China and other nations, and the strong possibility of a new model arriving in June, 2009 could be another strong year for the iPhone.
Troubled financial markets and the shrinking growth in smartphones sales in general may pose tough obstacles to overcome, but the established brand reputation of the iPhone, combined with its leading mobile app store, new platform developments in the works, and the third iPhone release are likely to keep the company afloat as other manufacturers struggle to differentiate themselves, much as Apple's Mac sales are outperforming the PC market as a whole.
Market research firm Gartner released a quarterly report this morning that warned worldwide smartphone sales had slowed to the industry's lowest growth rate ever, just 3.7 percent, in the last quarter of 2008.
"After a strong third quarter with new product introductions, sequential growth slowed down again in the fourth quarter as fewer compelling new products and the worsened economic climate continued to make data plans associated with smartphones out of reach for most consumers," said Gartner research director Roberta Cozza. "In general in 2008, the focus from vendors and operators on increasing their smartphone portfolios remained very strong. Samsung, RIM, HTC and Apple saw their volumes and share increase during 2008, thanks to their ability to offer compelling device experiences and touch interfaces."
Smartphone device share
In terms of units sold by manufacturer, Nokia still clings to its shrinking lead among smartphones; the company's quarterly change of -16.8 percent was the most severe market share retraction of any single handset maker, however.
Apple stands in a strong third place behind Nokia and second place RIM after achieving 111.6 percent year-over-year growth as it brought the iPhone 3G into new markets internationally. Samsung entered the top five vendors for the first time.
"Apple's initial sell-through dropped significantly as sales fell during the fourth quarter," Gartner said. "Nevertheless, Apple maintained its third position in the global rankings."
Worldwide Smartphone Sales to End Users by Vendor, 4Q08 (Thousands of Units)
Smartphones by OS share
In the summer (third) quarter of last year, at the launch of the iPhone 3G, Apple took a 12.9 percent share of the worldwide market for smartphones, moving the iPhone's OS ahead of the global shipments of all smartphones based on Microsoft's Windows Mobile by 1.8 percentage points. In the fourth quarter, the iPhone 3G slipped back down to fourth place, behind the sum of all manufacturers using Windows Mobile, with 10.7 percent share of all smartphones. However, Apple has more than doubled its previous fourth-quarter share from 2007 of 5.2 percent.
Worldwide Smartphone Sales to End Users by Operating System, 4Q08 (Thousands of Units)
Windows Mobile, which Gartner said was helped by the Samsung Omnia and touchscreen products from HTC, took back the third-place ranking with a 12.4 percent share. Symbian, which lost 21.6 percent year-over-year, remains in first place ahead of Research In Motion.
Moving away from individual quarters to look at the entire year, Apple has enjoyed a whopping 245.7 percent growth when comparing 2008 against 2007, easily trouncing its closest competitor RIM (96.7 percent).
Worldwide Smartphone Sales to End Users by Operating System, 2008 (Thousands of Units)
As rumors swirl about more flexible plan pricing from Apple's US partner AT&T, a possible iPhone deal in China and other nations, and the strong possibility of a new model arriving in June, 2009 could be another strong year for the iPhone.
Troubled financial markets and the shrinking growth in smartphones sales in general may pose tough obstacles to overcome, but the established brand reputation of the iPhone, combined with its leading mobile app store, new platform developments in the works, and the third iPhone release are likely to keep the company afloat as other manufacturers struggle to differentiate themselves, much as Apple's Mac sales are outperforming the PC market as a whole.
Comments
This during a period in which RIM introduced three new products.
And, if I was Nokia's top management looking at these numbers, I would be very worried. And calling some folks to the carpet.
Troubled by perceptions of high price, high hardware costs and a stale product line up, Apple is likely to experience further loss of market share and continuing shrinking sales as competition continue to ramp of compelling products.
Apple is reportedly considering reducing prices even further, as they did in Japan, to combat sliding sales and building inventory, which currently runs at a dangerous 2 million.
The market share data are less important than the remarkable 111% growth from4Q07 - 4Q08 that both Apple's hardware and software achieved.
lets see -
iPhone Q4 2007 - $400, only in US and 3 countries in Europe.
iPhone Q4 2007 - $200, in 60+ countries. Sales merely doubled, demand low. Shipments at 4.4 million once again exceed sell though at 4.07 million, just like Q3 shipments of 6.9 million exceeded sell though of 4.7 million.
Apple strategicly decided to increase inventory from 2.2 to 2.5 million in the face of slowing sales and new product launches upcoming.... Sure.....
lets see -
iPhone Q4 2007 - $400, only in US and 3 countries in Europe.
iPhone Q4 2007 - $200, in 60+ countries. Sales merely doubled, demand low. Shipments at 4.4 million once again exceed sell though at 4.07 million, just like Q3 shipments of 6.9 million exceeded sell though of 4.7 million.
Apple strategicly decided to increase inventory from 2.2 to 2.5 million in the face of slowing sales and new product launches upcoming.... Sure.....
Negativity rules !!!!.
Considering the economic news I think the stats are TERRIFIC!
FANGIRLS RULE!
Sorry couldn't help myself in the face of such a dour outlook from the quoted poster.
iPhone Q4 2007 - $200, in 60+ countries. Sales merely doubled,
Did you expect 60 x sales? lol
"
Troubled by perceptions of high price, high hardware costs and a stale product line up, Apple is likely to experience further loss of market share and continuing shrinking sales as competition continue to ramp of compelling products..
haha Apple are doomed! You guys never give in. Why do you even bother? It must be soul destroying to be continually wrong for over a decade.
And, if I was Nokia's top management looking at these numbers, I would be very worried. And calling some folks to the carpet.
And those folks would be the upper management who've obviously embarked on failed paths to maintain/increase their overall leadership position. Your suggestion would be like GM management firing its plant managers for making bad cars while the CEO still talks up SUVs.
Anywho, Apple is still maintaining strong growth and has the potential to come out the other end of this whole recession much stronger than the others. The appStore is the current model for hand-held app distribution, the underlying MacOS is showing itself to be better than Windows Mobile by far, and the iPhone itself is the standard for elegant design. Frankly Steve and the others can just sit back and let the users slowly come to them than go around chasing them.
Apple strategicly decided to increase inventory from 2.2 to 2.5 million in the face of slowing sales and new product launches upcoming.... Sure.....
Where does it say they have 2.5 million of them in inventory?
Where does it say they have 2.5 million of them in inventory?
They say they have 2 million, but if we subtract Gartner's sell through numbers from Apple's shipment numbers things look even less rosy.
They say they have 2 million, but if we subtract Gartner's sell through numbers from Apple's shipment numbers things look even less rosy.
can you say 'HyperCard'?
I really don't get how they think this is a platform that will compete with iPhone apps.
They say they have 2 million, but if we subtract Gartner's sell through numbers from Apple's shipment numbers things look even less rosy.
Since the release of the iPhone 3G Apple has continuously had 2 million units in the channel worldwide. Which shows that they're selling as many as they're making and keeping that 2 million unit buffer. The original iPhone was out of stock all over the place several weeks before the new iPhone was released last year. This is probably the reason for Apple wanting so many in the channel this time around; as production on the current model dies down, there should be enough inventory until a newer model(s) is released.
What is this Symbian on phones? I thought it was one of those ride a dildo machines.
Nokia's smartphone OS. Goes way back, I think... before that other Symbian
Troubled by perceptions of high price,
By whom, where? Can you cite any evidence?
... high hardware costs ....
Says who? Especially, considering their margins are among the highest in the business? Can you point to some evidence?
... a stale product line up....
According to whom? Compared to whom or what product?
... Apple is likely to experience further loss of market share and continuing shrinking sales as competition continue to ramp of compelling products.
Can you read numbers? Where does it show loss of share? "Further"? When was the prior share loss? Shrinking sales? Which compelling products are you talking about by which competitor (let's only talk about those actually in the market)? Can you provide some evidence on how their market share is doing?
Apple is reportedly considering reducing prices even further....
'Reportedly'.... by whom?
.... as they did in Japan.....
Apple did not. Softbank may have (I am not even sure about that).
... combat sliding sales.....
Yeah, I am sure sales are sliding even 'further'......
.... building inventory, which currently runs at a dangerous 2 million.
And, how do you conclude it is 'dangerous?' Can you provide any evidence?
Its really interesting how people like to look at Apple's numbers in a vacuum irrespective of context. In the midst of world economy crisis numbers don't look so rosy. At this point if you are still making a profit from quarter to quarter you are above average.
It's that tunnel vision the Internet seems to thrive on.
Yikes, I've rarely seen so much errant nonsense crammed into two sentences.
By whom, where? Can you cite any evidence?
Says who? Especially, considering their margins are among the highest in the business? Can you point to some evidence?
According to whom? Compared to whom or what product?
Can you read numbers? Where does it show loss of share? "Further"? When was the prior share loss? Shrinking sales? Which compelling products are you talking about by which competitor (let's only talk about those actually in the market)? Can you provide some evidence on how their market share is doing?
'Reportedly'.... by whom?
Apple did not. Softbank may have (I am not even sure about that).
Yeah, I am sure sales are sliding even 'further'......
And, how do you conclude it is 'dangerous?' Can you provide any evidence?
Once again, Apple jumped into a market, made a strong showing for itself almost instantaneously, and changed the market for everyone, not just their own customers.
And still the bashers will bash. Gotta love it.