Telecoms ♦ news digest
after the quarter closed, or Research In Motion’s BlackBerry 7 phone series, which were released in the final weeks of the quarter.”
However, smartphones drive the overall mobile phone market and will continue to do so in the quarters and years to come.
“Smartphone centricity continues to be the hallmark of the mobile phone market,” says Ramon Llamas, senior research analyst with IDC’s Mobile Phone Technology and Trends team. “Two years ago, smartphones comprised just a small portion of overall shipments among the leading vendors. Today, that proportion has grown considerably, thanks in large part to LG, Motorola, Samsung, and Sony Ericsson making Android smartphones a priority. At the same time, the growing presence of companies focused exclusively on the smartphone market - Apple, HTC, and RIM - also demonstrate the impact that smartphones have had on the mobile phone market as a whole.”
Regional Analysis
• In Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan) (APeJ), feature phones recovered in the third quarter on the back of Nokia’s resolved inventory channel issues in China combined with the strong showing of its dual- SIM handsets across emerging markets like India and Southeast Asia. With Nokia fighting back at the Chinese low-end competitors, the proliferation of these smaller brands has slowed as margins hit razor-thin levels. APeJ smartphone growth last quarter was driven primarily by Samsung and HTC, as well as ZTE in China. In Japan, the market rebounded sharply after two quarters of either low single-digit growth or outright market decline following the natural disasters of this spring.
• The Western European phone market declined as a result of lower demand for both feature phones and smartphones. The smartphone device type growth was mainly driven by mid-tier Android devices. High-end smartphone growth was negatively impacted by Apple’s fourth-quarter iPhone 4S launch, which caused consumers to delay purchases. Meanwhile, Nokia’s transition from the Symbian to the Windows Phone operating system as its primary smartphone platform led to a transition. Feature phones declined as consumers that replaced their devices upgraded to smartphones while others held on to their devices
for longer periods of time. Overall the Central Europe, Middle East and Africa (CEMA) markets showed strong growth due in large part to Nokia’s rebound in the regions. Bucking its global troubles, Nokia had a very strong 3Q11 due to feature phone growth. Its smartphone decline continued, however, but it remained the market leader in the region. Among the niche smartphone brands, HTC did particularly well in some markets, including Russia. RIM continues to make progress in the Middle East and Africa, but fared less well in Central and Eastern Europe.
• In North America, new iPhone demand went unfulfilled during 3Q11, leaving the door open for other companies to launch their competing devices. Research In Motion, which had not introduced a new BlackBerry smartphone during the entire first half of 2011, debuted several new models running on the new BB OS7 platform. Similarly, LG, Motorola, and Samsung unveiled their own respective Android flagship models, keeping the Android platform front and center in the smartphone market.
• The Latin America market growth was driven by smartphones though some users delayed purchases in anticipation of new hero device launches in the region. However, more touchscreen smartphones hit the market as vendors seek to broaden the appeal of smartphones to users. Meanwhile, Greater China vendors released new high-end devices in an attempt to grow market share in the region.
Top Five Mobile Phone Vendors
Nokia reversed a global market share on a sequential basis last quarter thanks to stronger feature phone sales in key regions as well as the clearing of inventory backlogs in traditional strongholds, namely China and Europe, which led to a sharp year-over-year shipment and share decline last quarter. Nokia’s smartphone fortunes could improve in quarters to come now that it has introduced the Nokia Lumia devices, powered by Windows Phone 7, to markets where its brand is still relatively strong and in areas where the company has lost share over the past two years.
Samsung registered double-digit growth compared to the third quarter a year ago and also outpaced the market. The company’s growth was again
November/December 2011
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