Nokia, Samsung lose handset market share

Nokia and Samsung, the world’s top two handset makers, both lost market share in Q2, under pressure from OEMs as well as high-end smartphones, according to IDC.
 
Vendors including Apple and ZTE were the biggest winners in the quarter as four of the top five vendors lost market share, the research firm said.
 
Nokia remains on top of the handset league table, but the 111.1 million devices it shipped captured just 35% of the global market, down 1.6 percentage points from Q1 and 2.2 points from a year ago, IDC said
 
Rival Samsung’s share fell from 21.8% in Q1 to 20.1%, while both RIM and Sony Ericsson slid from 3.6% to 3.5%. Only LG increased its share, up less than half a point to 9.6%.
 
IDC reported that shipments of all mobile devices had risen 14.5% for the year, but this was driven by companies outside the top five, which increased their portion from 25.3% to 28.3%.
 
Senior IDC analyst Kevin Restivo said smartphone demand would drive handset market growth this year.
 
 
“Lower smartphone average selling prices, increased consumer interest, and aggressive expansion plans on the part of key suppliers will keep the device type growing above market growth rate,” he said.
 
Separately, research firm Canalys says Google’s Android is driving a boom in the smartphone market, accounting for more than a third of US smartphone sales.
 
The operating system boosted sales for HTC, Motorola, Samsung, Sony Ericsson and LG, and captured 34% of global shipments.
 
Nokia shipped 23 million Symbian smartphones, up from the 16.9 million it shipped the same period last year, according to Canalys, while Apple took 13% of worldwide market share, shipping an estimated 8 million iPhones.