Apple Grows the Most in Global Smartphone Market (NewsFactor)

According to IDC, Apple solidified its number-four position in the worldwide mobile-phone market by shipping 20.3 million iPhones and posting the highest growth rate among the market leaders in the second quarter. The device maker's shipment numbers also edged closer to those of number-three LG Electronics, which delivered 24.8 million units in the second quarter -- down 18.9 percent from the year-earlier period.

With Apple poised to unleash a new iPhone 5 in September, it will soon have an opportunity to challenge LG Electronics for the number-three position. Apple's ability to bring its smartphone momentum to developing economies, where it's less successful, will help dictate the company's smartphone fortunes, IDC analysts said.

LG recently downgraded its mobile-phone outlook for 2011 by 24 percent due to the slow pace of its smartphone releases, competitive pressures, and soft demand for its feature phones. "The shrinking feature-phone market is having the greatest impact on some of the world's largest suppliers of mobile phones," said IDC Senior Research Analyst Kevin Restivo.

Samsung's Long-Term Prospects

According to Strategy Analytics, vendors shipped 110 million smartphones globally in the second quarter -- a robust 76 percent rise from the same period last year. Apple led the field with 20.3 million shipments, followed by Samsung (19.2 million) and Nokia (16.7 million).

"Samsung's Galaxy portfolio has proven popular, especially the high-tier S2 Android model," said Strategy Analytics Director Neil Mawston.

Although Apple posted 142 percent year-over-year growth in the second quarter, Samsung's smartphone sales are expected to surpass iPhone shipments in the long run. "Samsung's 500 percent year-over-year growth shows that, going forward, the top smartphone OEM position is Samsung's to lose," said ABI Research Senior Analyst Michael Morgan.

ABI analysts estimate that second-quarter Android shipments totaled 47 million for a 46.4 smartphone segment share. Samsung led the field with 34 percent of all Android shipments, followed by HTC (23 percent), and Sony Ericsson (11 percent).

Although robust smartphone sales in North America and Latin America helped drive growth in the mobile-phone market overall in the second quarter, mobile-phone sales in Western Europe declined from the previous quarter. "Feature phones continue to experience strong decline [and] inventory clearance from operators in advance of new product launches impacting smartphone growth," said IDC Research Manager Francisco Jeronimo on Friday.

Stalling Feature Phone Growth

Although global mobile-phone shipments rose 11.3 percent year over year to 365.4 million in the second quarter, feature-phone shipments declined four percent as more consumers in the U.S., Japan and Western Europe switched to smartphones.

"While this is not a new trend," noted IDC Senior Research Analyst Ramon Llamas, "it does mark something of a transition point, as demonstrated by the growing number and variety of smartphones featured in the vendors' portfolios."

While Nokia remained the global market leader, its second-quarter shipments fell 20.3 percent year over year to 88.5 million. Its sale of more than 2.6 million dual-SIM devices was one of the few bright spots in the quarter.

Dual-SIM phones are popular in markets like India and China as well as markets such as Italy, Portugal and elsewhere in Europe where operators apply different voice tariffs and charges for across-network calls, noted Gartner Research Vice President Carolina Milanesi. "So you keep one SIM that has your number and [have] one that you swap in and out with the carrier that gives you the best deal," Milanesi said Friday.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/tech/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nf/20110729/bs_nf/79576

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