Mobile devices are finding their way to more and more parts of the world, and the first phone most new users get will be a smartphone. Smartphones now outsell feature phones, and mobile phone manufacturers are finding that success in the entry-level market is directly tied to the product mix – the smarter the better.
Strategy Analytics estimates that 60% of the mobile phones shipped during the third quarter were smartphones, and the percentage is even higher for the most successful phone makers. 68% of the phones shipped by Samsung during the third quarter were smartphones, 86% of Huawei’s Q3 mobile phone shipments were smartphones, and 65% of LG’s Q3 phone shipments were smartphones. Apple, of course, sells no feature phones so 100% of its mobile phone sales are smartphones.
The most successful handset makers are seeing entry-level smartphones drive growth more than high-end models. Samsung said this week that sales of lower-cost Galaxy phones are offsetting slower growth at the high end, and Nokia said its lower-end Windows phones drove growth for its Lumia line. Apple is trying hard to address the entry-level smartphone market with its iPhone 5c.
Samsung dominates the overall mobile phone market and the smartphone market; it shipped 120.1 million mobile phones during Q3, and 82.1 million smartphones, according to IDC. Apple is the world’s second largest smartphone vendor after Samsung, and the world’s third largest mobile phone vendor after Samsung and Nokia.
Nokia has had a rough start in the smartphone arena. Just 14% of its third quarter phone shipments were smartphones, but those smartphones contributed 43% of the revenue booked by Nokia’s devices and services unit. Nokia has agreed to sell that business to Microsoft for $7 billion; that deal is expected to close in early 2014.
Lenovo, Huawei and LG are all benefitting from a product mix that heavily favors Android smartphones. Huawei is the world’s third largest smartphone vendor with 12.5 million units shipped during Q3. Lenovo and LG round out the top five smartphone vendors. According to IDC, Lenovo shipped 12.3 million smartphones and LG shipped 12.0 million.
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