Market Share Report for SmartPhone Sales in 1st quarter 2011

From the report, it is noted that Nokia still maintains its lead as the gloabal smartphone maker in the first quarter 2011 with 24.2 million smartphone shipped during the quarter. Comparing year on year, Nokia has in fact lost market share to second-place Apple. Nokia’s market share has dropped to 24.2% compared to 38.8% last year. Nokia has shipped only 12.6% more units compared to last year.

This is a small percentage increase compared to Apple who is chasing them very closely from behind. Apple has in fact done very well with in 1st quarter 2011 with a total shipment of 18.7 million units. This is a whopping increase of more than 100% compared to last year’s shipment of 8.7 million units. This is also Apple’s record number of units shipped in a single quarter to date. Apple’s sterling results and solid number of units shipped was mainly contributed by its triple digit growth in China as well as the launch of iPhone by Verizon.

With this report, it goes to show that the smartphone market is undergoing a rapid growth with most providers registering some very solid numbers. So, if you are not growing quickly enough, you will in fact lose market share which is the case for Nokia and Research In Motion(the maker of Blackberry devices).

Another notable observation is that, both Samsung and HTC have also turned in some very strong shipment numbers in this quarter with a growth of 350% and 229.6% respectively. This also goes to show that Android based phones are quickly gaining popularity as well.

Tim Cook recently said that Apple plans to compete in the market for prepaid mobile phones. He also said that Apple will be designed not just for the rich.

How do we interpret this? Well, iPhoneMalaysiaBloggers believe that Apple is probably working on a new version of iPhone that may be used for the Prepaid market and may not be tied to any contract of carriers. We believe that this is important in order for Apple to continue to compete with the growth of Google’s Android mobile platform.

China is an emerging market where Apple has found big success in a short period of time. Cook reportedly admits that Apple has “great achievement” in China. Since the Chinese mobile users are mainly the traditional prepaid market, this will make it a good target market for a cheaper iPhone.

The company has also said that it aims to expand its partnerships with its carriers. Apple currently has 175 carrier partners, while its rival, Research in Motion, maker of the Blackberry has 550 partner companies.

Tim Cook also believes that the PC market will be overtaken by the tablet market eventually and the competition will intensify in the tablet market. He has also hinted that there may be new interesting products that are in the pipeline.

i would still classify this as rumour at this point in time. Let’s keep our fingers crossed on these and see if there are any new announcement coming from Apple in the coming months…. i am sure many of us are looking forward to a more affordable iPhone.