In Declining Mobile Phone Market, Samsung Maintains Lead in Sales

MINYANVILLE ORIGINAL The worldwide mobile phone market declined 1.9% year-on-year in the second quarter of 2012 while Samsung (SSNLF) maintained its lead over Nokia (NOK) and Apple (AAPL) as the world’s top mobile phone vendor. According to IDC’s European Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, vendors shipped 42.1 million units during the quarter, a drop of 1.9% year-on-year.

The feature phone segment continued to decline, with shipments down 30% to 14.7 million units. The segment continues to be supported by the lowest price levels: 58% of the total feature phone shipments were under the $75 price point and the fastest growing segment is for phones at half that price.

Smartphone shipments increased 26.6% year-on-year to 27.4 million units during the quarter.

“The second quarter was impacted by a weaker economic environment in Western Europe, which contributed to lower demand," said Francisco Jeronimo, European mobile devices research manager at IDC. "Moreover, there are rumors that a number of devices will be unveiled in the third quarter and mobile operators are focused on clearing stocks ahead of the new launches. The Samsung Galaxy S III was the only major product release in the second quarter, and therefore the biggest seller in the quarter, which contributed to Samsung's dominance in the market. The third quarter will be flooded with a number of devices on different operating systems. The new devices may represent major developments from previous versions, and current devices may not be upgradable to the new platform releases. This has led consumers to postpone their upgrades and wait for the new 'crown jewels' from the major OEMs to be unveiled.”

Android continued to increase its market share, supported by Samsung's strong performance. Google's OS grew 71% year-on-year, only outpaced by Windows Phone 7, which grew 874% year-on-year. Android now accounts for 65% of total smartphone shipments in the region.

Source : minyanville