The European handset market has maintained a healthy annual growth rate of 11.2% in Q2 with Nokia holding the lion’s share of market growth at 64%.
According to research from Canalysis, 14 million handsets were shipped in EMEA in the last quarter with 8.9 million of those from Nokia.
Yet for Nokia, the statistics are underwhelming, representing a drop in handset shipments from 9 million, compared to the same quarter last year, where it held 71.2% market share.
Apple, holding a paltry 1.3% European market share has however emerged as the disruptive element, shipping 1.9 million iPhones the quarter, an effective growth rate of 1041%.
“Apple has revolutionised the smartphone sector, leapfrogging more experienced rivals,” Canalys senior analyst Pete Cunningham, said. “The competition must move much faster to close the gap in terms of functionality and design and at the same time try to target Apple’s weak spots.
“These are primarily related to its business model, which requires premium upfront pricing, high cost of ownership and, in many countries, a restricted operator line-up.”
Globally 38 million smartphones were shipped in the quarter, with Symbian-based handsets leading market share at 50.3% or 19.2 million handsets. RIM is gaining ground at 20.9%, or 8 million units.
“The main loser has been Microsoft’s highly-standardized Windows Mobile platform. Its smartphone market share has now fallen below 10% and the trend is likely to continue as many of its OEM partners, including HTC, Motorola and Palm, are focusing investment on other platforms,” the report states.
Meanwhile, Nokia CEO Olli- Pekka Kallasvuo said at a public forum yesterday that recovery from the financial crisis would be slow. “The global economy has pressed the ‘reset’ button and we are gradually getting back to business - or new growth.”
He added from the productivity viewpoint it was important to adapt to change. “With respect to what we do, we need to look at whether the organization is right, whether we can create and take advantage of economies of scale, develop superior, patentable inventions and so on.”