Apple's iPhone captures 17% of worldwide smartphone market
In less than two and a half years on the market, Apple's iPhone has managed nearly a fifth of the total global smartphone market, thanks to nearly 50 percent year-over-year growth in sales in the third quarter of 2009.
New data released by research firm Gartner Thursday showed that the iPhone has taken a 17.1 percent share of the worldwide smartphone market in the three-month period ending in September. The report said Apple's share is only expected to grow, with even stronger anticipated sales in the fourth quarter, thanks to expansion into China and the addition of new carriers in multiple countries.
The study found Apple to be the third-largest smartphone company, behind only Nokia and Research in Motion. Apple shipped an estimated 7.04 million iPhones in the September quarter, up from just 4.72 million phones and a 12.9 percent share in the same frame a year ago. That represented a 49.2 percent year-over-year increase in sales.
Market leader Nokia took a 39.3 percent slice of the market, shipping 16.16 million smartphones. That was up from 15.47 million in the third quarter of 2008, but represented a smaller percentage of the overall market. Last year, Nokia took 42.3 percent of sales. Gartner said the company's 2009 share represents its lowest ever.
RIM shipped an estimated 8.52 million handsets during the quarter, earning it 20.8 percent of sales. It, too, grew its share, up from 15.9 percent in the same period in 2008, when it shipped 5.8 million smartphones, an increase of 46.9 percent.
Worldwide Smartphone Sales to End Users in 3Q09 (Thousands of Units). Source: Gartner.
Coming in fourth with 6.5 percent of sales was HTC, which saw its year-over-year sales grow 60.6 percent. It was followed by Samsung with 3.2 percent. All other hardware makers accounted for the remaining 13.1 percent. In all, 41.06 million smartphones shipped in the third quarter of 2009.
Gartner also tracked the mobile operating system market, where Android reportedly picked up momentum. However, its total global share sits at 3.5 percent.
"The third quarter of 2009 saw the announcement of many new mobile devices, including several Android smartphones ready for the holiday season in the fourth quarter, but hardware commoditization and the growth in open platforms will make it harder for them to stand out," said Carolina Milanesi, research director at Gartner. "Meanwhile, the channel slowed its inventory-reduction efforts so while some sales volumes increased, average selling prices (ASPs) stagnated. We expect pressure on ASP to continue into 2010."
The report said that the average selling price of the iPhone, however, is expected to hold firm. Last quarter, Apple stated that the ASP of the iPhone was "just over $600," showing that sales tend to skew toward the higher-priced iPhone 3GS.
"Many devices will reach the market in time for Christmas, and mobile carriers will run incentives for consumers during the holidays," Milanesi said. "We expect sales of mobile devices in the fourth quarter of 2009 to show year-over-year growth. As many vendors and industry watchers call for a decrease in sales into the channel, our sell through data is showing that 2009 performance will be flat rather than down over 2008."
New data released by research firm Gartner Thursday showed that the iPhone has taken a 17.1 percent share of the worldwide smartphone market in the three-month period ending in September. The report said Apple's share is only expected to grow, with even stronger anticipated sales in the fourth quarter, thanks to expansion into China and the addition of new carriers in multiple countries.
The study found Apple to be the third-largest smartphone company, behind only Nokia and Research in Motion. Apple shipped an estimated 7.04 million iPhones in the September quarter, up from just 4.72 million phones and a 12.9 percent share in the same frame a year ago. That represented a 49.2 percent year-over-year increase in sales.
Market leader Nokia took a 39.3 percent slice of the market, shipping 16.16 million smartphones. That was up from 15.47 million in the third quarter of 2008, but represented a smaller percentage of the overall market. Last year, Nokia took 42.3 percent of sales. Gartner said the company's 2009 share represents its lowest ever.
RIM shipped an estimated 8.52 million handsets during the quarter, earning it 20.8 percent of sales. It, too, grew its share, up from 15.9 percent in the same period in 2008, when it shipped 5.8 million smartphones, an increase of 46.9 percent.
Worldwide Smartphone Sales to End Users in 3Q09 (Thousands of Units). Source: Gartner.
Coming in fourth with 6.5 percent of sales was HTC, which saw its year-over-year sales grow 60.6 percent. It was followed by Samsung with 3.2 percent. All other hardware makers accounted for the remaining 13.1 percent. In all, 41.06 million smartphones shipped in the third quarter of 2009.
Gartner also tracked the mobile operating system market, where Android reportedly picked up momentum. However, its total global share sits at 3.5 percent.
"The third quarter of 2009 saw the announcement of many new mobile devices, including several Android smartphones ready for the holiday season in the fourth quarter, but hardware commoditization and the growth in open platforms will make it harder for them to stand out," said Carolina Milanesi, research director at Gartner. "Meanwhile, the channel slowed its inventory-reduction efforts so while some sales volumes increased, average selling prices (ASPs) stagnated. We expect pressure on ASP to continue into 2010."
The report said that the average selling price of the iPhone, however, is expected to hold firm. Last quarter, Apple stated that the ASP of the iPhone was "just over $600," showing that sales tend to skew toward the higher-priced iPhone 3GS.
"Many devices will reach the market in time for Christmas, and mobile carriers will run incentives for consumers during the holidays," Milanesi said. "We expect sales of mobile devices in the fourth quarter of 2009 to show year-over-year growth. As many vendors and industry watchers call for a decrease in sales into the channel, our sell through data is showing that 2009 performance will be flat rather than down over 2008."
Comments
PLEASE CHANGE THE ADS ON THE FRONT PAGE.
I'm pretty sure none of those dudes got ripped in 30 days, and I'm absolutely positive it makes the site look extremely GAY.
When I visit AI from my phone, and all those ads come up, it looks reeeaaallly bad.
Pertaining to the article: Who didn't see this coming? Time to expand to other carriers and double that percentage in a few months, amiright?
Ok, I'll make this announcement here since this should get plenty of views:
PLEASE CHANGE THE ADS ON THE FRONT PAGE.
I'm pretty sure none of those dudes got ripped in 30 days, and I'm absolutely positive it makes the site look extremely GAY.
When I visit AI from my phone, and all those ads come up, it looks reeeaaallly bad.
1.) How did you get flash to run on your phone?
2.) It looks reeeeeeeeeeally bad because you think people are looking at your phone and think you gay?
1.) How did you get flash to run on your iPhone?
2.) It looks reeeeeeeeeeally bad because you think people are looking at your iPhone and think you gay?
Where did he say he was visiting the site from his iPhone?
Where did he say he was visiting the site from his iPhone?
When I visit AI from my phone, and all those ads come up, it looks reeeaaallly bad.
Unless he meant his Droid.
Unless he meant his Droid.
Apple in third place behind Nokia and RIM. No wonder Quadra hasn't responded.
Where did he say he was visiting the site from his iPhone?
What phone runs flash ads?
why aren't they up to 250/share yet?
stupid market.
oh, and I'm pretty sick of staring at ripped dudes too -- maybe just a little sponser variety would be nice.
Apple in third place behind Nokia and RIM. No wonder Quadra hasn't responded.
Sooooo, let's put this whole thing in perspective shall we? RIM started their entry into mobility devices in 1984, releasing the Blackberry/BES systems in 1999. That would be, generously, an 8-year lead on the introduction of the iPhone.
Nokia has been in the mobility industry even longer - starting back in 1979 with their first truly cellular telephony devices, developing the GSM standards (and patents) in 1987. So even if we look back ONLY to the advent of GSM - that's a 20 year lead on the iPhone. We could even spot Nokia a decade or two for the real development of their smartphones (9000 Communicator in 1996, E50 Enterprise mobile in 2006 or the N70 in 2005).
The iPhone has gone from zero to 17% of the GLOBAL smartphone market in 2.5 years. Or 30 months. Or 10,950 days.
Admittedly, after this holiday season, they could very well be up to "almost a fourth" I suppose...
RIM's about to get creamed.
give me back the 3 seconds it took to read this garbage.
give me back the 3 seconds it took to read this garbage.
It'll happen.
It'll happen.
Have you ever spoken to a blackberry user about their phone? There's no convincing them of anything better. That's not going away anytime soon.
I said it before and I'll say it again: Whatever comes along and "trumps" the iphone won't look anything like an iphone.
EDIT: It's more bizarre than I first thought. Gartner has Apple selling 4.7 million iPhones in Q3 2008 whilst Canalys reckons that they sold 6.9 million in the same period. Which figure is correct?
It makes a huge difference to Apple's growth; 49.2% vs. 6.7%.
I assume one of the two has made the mistake of using Apple's Q3 accounting period rather than the Q3 calendar period.
Apple in third place behind Nokia and RIM.
Apple is DOOMED!