Cheaper phones
Onto the broader phone market, it grew 35 percent year-on-year thanks partly to smartphones. The other end of the market was a big contributor too, which cheap, white-label devices popular in emerging markets.
"In the third quarter, white-box manufacturers continued to expand their reach outside of China into markets such as India, Russia, Africa and Latin America," said Milanesi.
"We firmly believe this phenomenon will not be short-lived as we still see a continued need for non-3G devices. Although we have seen acceleration in sales this quarter, we expect an even bigger volume in the fourth quarter of 2010."
You can see the effect this is having on the overall mobile market in the table below. Yes, Nokia lost market share once more, but so did Samsung, LG, SE and Motorola. Apple and HTC have done well, but check out the ‘others', which will include the while-label OEMs. They are now the biggest category in the table, having more than doubled market share in a year.
Worldwide Mobile Terminal Sales to End Users in 3Q10 (Thousands of Units)
|
Company |
3Q10 Units |
3Q10 Market Share (%) |
3Q09 Units |
3Q09 Market Share (%) |
|
Nokia |
117,461.0 |
28.2 |
113,466.2 |
36.7 |
|
Samsung |
71,671.8 |
17.2 |
60,627.7 |
19.6 |
|
LG |
27,478.7 |
6.6 |
31,901.4 |
10.3 |
|
Apple |
13,484.4 |
3.2 |
7,040.4 |
2.3 |
|
Research In Motion |
11,908.3 |
2.9 |
8,522.7 |
2.8 |
|
Sony Ericsson |
10,346.5 |
2.5 |
13,409.5 |
4.3 |
|
Motorola |
8,961.4 |
2.1 |
13,912.8 |
4.5 |
|
HTC |
6,494.3 |
1.6 |
2,659.5 |
0.9 |
|
ZTE |
6,003.6 |
1.4 |
4,143.7 |
1.3 |
|
Huawei Technologies |
5,478.1 |
1.3 |
3,339.7 |
1.1 |
|
Others |
137,797.6 |
33.0 |
49,871.1 |
16.1 |
|
Total |
417,085.7 |
100.0 |
308,894.7 |
100.0 |
Source: Gartner (November 2010)
So Nokia doesn't even have the consolation of dominating the low-end market anymore either. Seldom has a market-leader looked more vulnerable. The smartphone market also has the additional dynamic of being dependent on third-party app developers, without whom the handset itself is of limited use. Milanesi concludes with a look at Apple's dominance in that area.
"Apple's dramatic expansion of iOS with the iPad and the continuing success of the iPod Touch are important sales achievements in their own right," she said. "But more importantly they contribute to the strength of Apple's ecosystem and the iPhone in a way that smartphone-only manufacturers cannot compete with."
"To a developer, the iPod Touch and iPhone (and to a lesser extent the iPad) are effectively the same device and a single market opportunity. While Android is increasingly available on media tablets and media players like the Galaxy Player, it lags far behind iOS's multi-device presence. Apple claims it is activating around 275,000 iOS devices per day on average - that's a compelling market for any developer. And developers' applications in turn attract users."
