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Gartner WP7 sales estimates – not good

by Scott Bicheno on 19 May 2011, 18:29

Tags: Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), Gartner (NYSE:IT)

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A long way to go

Market researcher Gartner has released its latest figures for the mobile device market, and they confirm that smartphones already account for almost a quarter of all mobile phone sales.

"Smartphones accounted for 23.6 percent of overall sales in the first quarter of 2011, an increase of 85 percent year-on-year," said Roberta Cozza of Gartner. "This share could have been even higher, but manufacturers announced a number of high-profile devices during the first quarter of 2011 that would not ship until the second quarter of 2011. We believe some consumers delayed their purchases to wait for these models."

But the most revealing figures concerned platforms. Android now accounts for over a third of all smartphones sold, up from a tenth a year ago. Meanwhile Apple is holding its own in a market that has almost doubled.

Everyone else is struggling. RIM is starting to look like another Nokia in so much as it risks being left behind by the smartphone revolution. Symbian, as expected, is taking a spanking, with Nokia having abandoned it in favour of Microsoft's Windows Phone 7, but it's not exactly joining a winning team.

Not only did Microsoft's share of the smartphone market almost halve in Q1, Gartner reckons only 1.6 million WP7 units were shifted - the first full quarter since they were launched. The two companies will be hoping to make a right out of what are currently two wrongs.

"Every time a user downloads a native app to their smartphone or puts their data into a platform's cloud service, they are committing to a particular ecosystem and reducing the chances of switching to a new platform. This is a clear advantage for the current stronger ecosystem owners Apple and Google," said Cozza. "As well as putting their devices in the context of a broader ecosystem, manufacturers must start to see their smartphones as part of a computing continuum."

 

Worldwide Smartphone Sales to End Users by Operating System in 1Q11 (Thousands of Units)

Company

1Q11

 Units

1Q11 Market Share (%)

1Q10

 Units

1Q10 Market Share (%)

Android

36,267.8

36.0

5,226.6

9.6

Symbian

27,598.5

27.4

24,067.7

44.2

iOS

16,883.2

16.8

8,359.7

15.3

Research In Motion

13,004.0

12.9

10,752.5

19.7

Microsoft

3,658.7

3.6

3,696.2

6.8

Other OS

3,357.2

3.3

2,402.9

4.4

Total

100,769.3

100.0

54,505.5

100.0

Source: Gartner (May 2011)

 

An interesting aspect of the total mobile phone sales breakdown by vendor is that nearly everyone lost market share. HTC and ZTE did well, but the biggest winner was ‘others', which probably points towards local, budget brands.


Worldwide Mobile Terminal Sales to End Users in 1Q11 (Thousands of Units)

Company

1Q11

 Units

1Q11 Market Share (%)

1Q10

 Units

1Q10 Market Share (%)

Nokia

107,556.1

25.1

110,105.4

30.6

Samsung

68,782.0

16.1

64,897.1

18.0

LG

23,997.2

5.6

27,190.1

7.6

Apple

16,883.2

3.9

8,270.1

2.3

RIM

13,004.0

3.0

10,752.5

3.0

ZTE

9,826.8

2.3

6,104.3

1.7

HTC

9,313.5

2.2

3,378.4

0.9

Motorola

8,789.7

2.1

9,574.5

2.7

Sony Ericsson

7,919.4

1.9

9,865.7

2.7

Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd.

7,002.9

1.6

5,236.1

1.5

Others

154,770.9

36.2

104,230.3

29.0

Total

427,846

100.0

359,605

100.0

Source: Gartner (May 2011)

 



HEXUS Forums :: 5 Comments

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That's shockingly low….Nokia may still be doomed!
I also don't get why it's so low.
I've put wp7 on my hd2 and I love it. Quick, easy to use, pretty UI, can't stand my missuses iphone.
But if I talk to anyone who isn't techy, they haven't even heard of windows phone (a lot haven't even heard of android)
In fact, everyone seems to be either buying iphones or blackberry (don't get the big deal with BBM, it's just instant messaging, it's not new).
Microsoft seem to be advertising in the wrong place. Maybe they should stop paying US networks for product placement (castle, I'm looking at you) and try to let the public know there is a real alternative.
oh, so maybe I do get why it is so low.
My missus has a Blackberry, and it's like going back 5 years in phone tech! Pants camera, little buttons that are awful to press. BBM is rubbish, and why is the Bluetooth crippled? But, as you've said, the sheepy people only know what an iPhone is, and that's because they advertise a hell of a lot, which of course jacks up the price…
I find that quite disconcerting, I'm hoping to get a WP7 phone next, I own an iphone 3GS and have been using the HD7 - wow it's like move over apple, daddy's back. More mature better interface no fricking itunes syncing issues. Love it. Hopefully MS will push through the bad early sales.

brasc
I honestly think Microsoft have missed the boat, pure and simple. Too little, too late…..again!