IDC’s fourth quarter mobile phone tracker shows the top five vendors with almost two thirds of the market. Samsung has consolidated its lead with a 29% market share, up from 22.5% in the year-ago quarter. Apple’s share has slipped from 23% to 21.8%.
Although Apple’s market share is down from Q4 2011, the fourth quarter represented a recovery for the iPhone. During 2012, Apple’s market share fell as low as 17%, as Samsung launched its Galaxy S III several months ahead of the iPhone 5.
Chinese vendors Huawei and ZTE made big gains during the year, as did Japan’s Sony. While American consumers are most familiar with names like the Huawei Ascend, the ZTE Grand and the Sony Xperia, many of these companies’ sales are entry-level smartphones sold in emerging markets, particularly China. All of these vendors, however, will continue to penetrate the North American and European markets. The chief executive of ZTE USA recently told RCR Wireless that the success of Samsung and Apple is good for his company.
“We don’t see Apple and Samsung as our competitors,” said Lixin Cheng, CEO of ZTE USA. “They have full respect from us, the two companies, because they are so innovative and have created so much excitement in the smartphone segment. We do believe, the more successful they are, the better off for ZTE.”
IDC says that worldwide, 712.6 million smartphones were shipped last year, up 44.1% from 2011. IDC says the total mobile phone shipments grew just 1.2% last year, but that smartphones now represent a much bigger part of the overall mobile phone market (45.5%).
The numbers published by IDC differ only slightly from those released last week by Strategy Analytics, another leading research firm that tracks smartphone sales. Strategy Analytics estimated that 700 million smartphones were shipped in 2012, and put Samsung’s Q4 market share at 29% and Apple’s at 22%.
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