Worldwide sales of mobile phones to end users decreased 2.3% in the second quarter of 2012 to 419 million units, according to Gartner, Inc. Samsung remained the leader and accounted for 21.6% of the total market, higher than its 16.3% global share in 2Q11. Finland-based Nokia remained in second place with a 19.9% market share, which shows the company’s decline from its 22.8% share in the second quarter of 2011. In the third place, Apple held 6.9%, followed by ZTE (4.3%), LG Electronics (3.4%) and Huawei Device (2.6%).
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Anshul Gupta, principal research analyst at Gartner, explained that demand slowed because of the challenging economic environment and users postponing upgrades to take advantage of high-profile device launches and promotions available later in the year.
Smartphone sales accounted for 36.7% of total mobile phone sales and grew 42.7% in the second quarter of 2012, while demand for feature phones continued to decline, significantly weakening the overall mobile phone market.
Samsung kept its leadership, continuing to see very strong mobile phone sales—up 29.5% from the second quarter of 2011. As the Gartner pointed out, Samsung managed to extend its lead over both Apple and Nokia quarter on quarter. Samsung’s growth was driven by record sales of Galaxy smartphones, meaning smartphones now account for 50.4% of all Samsung mobile devices (45.6 million units).
Gartner reported that consumer demand for Apple’s iPhone weakened as sales fell 12.6% from the first quarter of 2012, but grew 47.4% year on year. Depending on the exact launch date of the new iPhone, Apple might experience another weaker-than-usual quarter in the third quarter of 2012, but the company will be ready to take advantage of the strong holiday sales in North America and Western Europe, which have historically remained immune to economic pressure, according to Gartner.
Gupta noted that Samsung and Apple continued to dominate the smartphone market, together taking about half of the market share and widening the gap in front of other manufacturers. As for Nokia, he pointed out that “declining smartphone sales is worsening Nokia’s overall position, as it had already lost the No. 1 position to Samsung in the previous quarter and is facing reduced profitability due to continuous declining sales of premium smartphones.”
Gartner also released worldwide operating system sales to end users. According to the consultant firm, Android extended its lead with an increase of 20.7 percentage points in market share in the second quarter of 2012, and Apple’s iOS market share grew slightly year over year (0.6%) but declined 3.7 percentage points quarter on quarter, as users postponed their upgrade decisions in most markets ahead of the upcoming launch of the iPhone 5.
Gartner analysts said the arrival of the iPhone 5 should provide the greatest upgrade opportunity yet as the expected new design with a larger screen and other likely stylistic changes will make a strong case for iPhone 4 users to upgrade.
