Research firm IDC has released its latest Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, reporting a jump of over 38 per cent in worldwide smartphone shipments, which hit the 1 billion mark in 2013, the most smartphones ever shipped in a 12 month period.
The new report from IDC showed a total of 1,004.2 million smartphones shipped in 2013, with Samsung as a "clear leader" as it holds 31.3 per cent of the market share with shipments of 313.9 million handsets. This is followed by Apple's shipment tally of 153.4 million devices, with figures showing a slight drop in percentage from 2012 to 2013 from 18.7 per cent to 15.3 percent, even with its record shipment volume during 4Q13.
However, Apple's market share had the least growth of the top five, with Huawei attaining the highest year-on-year increase among the leading vendors and Lenovo and LG nearly doubling their 2012 shipment numbers during the 12 month period. It remains to be seen if the decision by China Mobile, the world's largest telecom company by subscribers, will help Apple close the gap in the next year.
Top Five Smartphone Vendors, Shipments, and Market Share, 2013 (Units in Millions)
|
Vendor |
2013 Shipment Volumes |
2013 Market Share |
2012 Shipment Volumes |
2012 Market Share |
Year-over-Year Change |
|
Samsung |
313.9 |
31.3% |
219.7 |
30.3% |
42.9% |
|
Apple |
153.4 |
15.3% |
135.9 |
18.7% |
12.9% |
|
Huawei |
48.8 |
4.9% |
29.1 |
4.0% |
67.5% |
|
LG |
47.7 |
4.8% |
26.3 |
3.6% |
81.1% |
|
Lenovo |
45.5 |
4.5% |
23.7 |
3.3% |
91.7% |
|
Others |
394.9 |
39.3% |
290.5 |
40.1% |
35.9% |
|
Total |
1,004.2 |
100.0% |
725.3 |
100.0% |
38.4% |
The director of IDC's Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker Ryan Reith noted that the two main elements driving smartphone growth are large screen devices and low-cost. "Cheap devices are not the attractive segment that normally grabs headlines, but IDC data shows this is the portion of the market that is driving volume. Markets like China and India are quickly moving toward a point where sub-$150 smartphones are the majority of shipments, bringing a solid computing experience to the hands of many."
It will also be interesting to see how Huawei, LG and Lenovo will beat the challenge of sustaining growth whilst on a tight profit margin, offering their cheaper smartphones. We have seen many vendors such as Nokia, HTC and BlackBerry, failing to do so and they have thus fallen out of the top five rankings.
Intel questions its future in smartphone market
Whilst smartphones are going up in sales, there is an "upstream supply chain" rumour that Intel is questioning whether to quit the smartphone market in 2015, as the firm is finding it difficult to break in, reports DigiTimes.
Sources have pointed out that the firm is starting an internal evaluation and is weighing up whether to stop spending funds on the mobile business sector that has not seen noteworthy progress for the past few years. Also Lenovo's smartphone agreement with Intel, one of its biggest mobile backers in 2013, has now ended.
