The worldwide smartphone market saw resounding growth year over year in the first quarter of 2011 with market research firm IDC reporting 79.7% growth, which it credits to lower prices, release of highly anticipated models, wide availability of older models and continued smartphone demand.
The IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker said smartphone vendors had shipped a total of 99.6 million units in 1Q11, roughly double the 55.4 million units shipped in the first quarter of 2010.
The increase, says IDC, is being perpetuated by vendors who now see the higher margins and demand associated with smartphones as critical to their own growth.
Ramon Llamas, a senior research analyst at IDC said the phenomenon was also helped along by the entrance of more mid-range and entry-level smartphone offerings and the fact the space was becoming more competitive in terms of pricing. Also, said Llamas, “users continue to seek greater utility from their mobile phone beyond voice.”
Google’s Android continues to get credit for the proliferation of smartphones, with Kevin Restivo, another IDC senior analyst noting, “the rise of Android as a prominent mobile operating system has allowed several suppliers to gain share quickly.”
He added that because it was still relatively early days in terms of global smartphone adoption, there was also “ample room for several suppliers to comfortably co-exist, at least for the short term.”
In terms of the top five global smartphone vendors, Nokia still surprisingly remains in the lead with its old Symbian platform, still wildly popular in EMEA. The firm has compounded its lead by announcing even more upcoming Symbian devices including the E6 and X7.
Meanwhile, Apple takes a very close second to Nokia with fewer than six million units separating the two companies. The fruity firm posted market-beating year-over-year growth and recorded triple-digit growth in two key markets: the United States, with the release of its CDMA-enabled iPhone, and Greater China.
RIM remained in third place and managed to expand a little outside of its North American stronghold with several new 3G devices, while Samsung posted the largest year-over-year gain of any other vendor on the list. The firm seems to be doing fantastically well by hedging its OS bets between its higher end Android devices and lower end Bada smartphones.
Taiwanese firm HTC also put in a strong showing, almost surpassing the ten million unit mark for the first time thanks to the launch of several new devices, including its Inspire 4G, WiMAX-enabled EVO Shift 4G, and LTE-enabled Thunderbolt.
Meanwhile, fellow market research firm Comscore reported today that in terms of the US 72.5 million people now owned smartphones up 15% from the preceding three-month period.
Google Android in the US market grew 6% to 34.7% market share, while RIM ranked second with 27.1%. Apple grew 0.5 points to 25.5%, followed by Microsoft (7.5%) and Palm (2.8%).
