Saturday, January 26, 2013

Apple and Samsung winning the smartphone wars.

The latest figures from IDC show that smartphone is approaching 50% of the total phone market, and that two companies dominate it. There is room for growth - but not an obvious reason for the displacement of the two top .


the smartphone wars are, in effect, over. Samsung and Apple have won the battle of the manufacturers; Android won the battle for market share, although it remains to be seen which of the two giants - the South Korean manufacturer or the California designer will win the battle for profits.

The latest figures from market research company IDC mobile the fourth quarter of 2012 and the full year show that the smartphone market now Apple and Samsung. By calculation IDC (because Samsung figures are published, but give "guidance" to analysts), Samsung moved 63.7m smartphones in the fourth quarter, Apple shipped 47.8m. Together, they comprise more than 50% of the total smartphone market - comprising 45.5% of the total mobile market.

Apple and Samsung percentage of smartphone sales together in the fourth quarter of 2012 (source: IDC)

In other words, one out of four of the phones shipped during the fourth quarter smartphone from either Apple or Samsung. In the smartphone space, had Samsung share of 29%, up from 22.5% a year ago, and Apple share of 21.8% (23% a year ago), says IDC. The first Huawei largest and just under 5%.

There is no particular reason to think that either Samsung or Apple is going to pack up their bags and go home. Despite all the noise around Apple results "disappointing" (because it was pretty much what analysts predict - always a mistake), the murmurs about another iPhone, or even a lower cost iPhone model but new (rather than lower costs but old model iPhone using the iPhone 4 casing) does make some sense if the company wishes to expand its presence in markets unlike the U.S., where the state of the market in the iPhone carrier subsidy model favor.

Given that, and given that Nokia is not shown any signs of breaking on the market (sold it only 770,000 Lumias in the United States in the fourth quarter of 2012), it seems reasonable to say that the war is over more. Windows Phone will get some share, blackberry rim will get some share, but Android is the most - anywhere from 60% to 70%, depending - and Apple has about 20%.

Year-on-year growth in all mobile phones, featurephones and smartphones. (Source: IDC)

The figures also show how quickly smartphones are taking over the market.

Featurephone market is shrinking, many fast: it has gone from phone about 300m per quarter in 2011 to around 250m in 2012 (and fell 15% year on year in the fourth quarter), and keep the number of smartphone growth, rising by about 40% per quarter. Some time this quarter, smartphones will make up more than 50% of the world total.
 
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