Smartphones - Success Leads Recovery in Mobile Market
Nevertheless, the most promising statistic to come out from the research was the sale of smartphones continuing to lead the partial recovery of the mobile market - posting an 8.3% sales increase in the final quarter of 2009.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, three of the largest global mobile phone manufacturers registered fewer unit sales throughout 2009. Nokia, Sony Ericsson and Motorola experienced a decline in sales, with their market shares dropping as much as 3-4% in a single calendar year.
Carolina Milanesi, Gartner’s research director, said: “The mobile devices market finished on a very positive note, driven by growth in smartphones (http://www.foneshop.com) and low-end devices.”
It is felt that the declining Average Selling Prices of the latest smartphone handsets will put the success of Nokia’s Symbian and Meego devices in jeopardy during a difficult 2010.
Milanesi added: “Nokia will face a tough first half of 2010 as improvement to Symbian and new products based on the Meego platform will not reach the market well before the second half of 2010.
“Its very strong mid-tier portfolio will help it hold market share, but its ongoing weakness at the high end of the portfolio will hurt its share of market value.”
One of the rare success stories of 2009 saw Korean mobile manufacturers Samsung increase its market share from 16.3% and 19.5% with much of its improvement due to a strong mid-range smartphones (http://www.foneshop.com)
The growing demand for Apple iPhone smartphones and HTC smartphones threatens the strength of the Symbian platform on Nokia handsets. However, much is being done behind the scenes to try and reverse its fortunes in the coming year.
Photo:
http://www.prlog.org/
