Smartphone sales see a decline for the first time since 2009, reports Gartner
In the final quarter of 2012, the global mobile phone market underwent significant changes. According to Anshul Gupta, principal research analyst at Gartner, the decline in mobile phone sales was a result of tough economic conditions, shifting consumer preferences, and intense market competition.
Nokia, a long-standing player in the mobile phone industry, saw its share in the overall market drop to 18%. This decline was particularly noticeable in the smartphone sector, where Samsung emerged as a dominant force. Samsung's smartphone sales rose by an impressive 85% in the same quarter, reaching 65 million units, giving the company a 23% market share in the global smartphone market.
Apple, too, saw an increase in its smartphone sales, with iPhone sales rising by 22% to 44 million units in the fourth quarter of 2012. However, Apple's share in the smartphone operating system market remained at 22%, while Google's Android extended its dominance, accounting for 69% of the market.
The shift from featurephones to smartphones was also evident during this period. For the first time, smartphone sales exceeded featurephone sales, with smartphone sales growing 38% to 208 million. Unfortunately, the decline in featurephone sales, which fell 19% to 264 million, was not compensated for by the growth in smartphone sales.
Looking ahead to 2013, Gupta predicted it to be the year of the rise of the third ecosystem, with the battle between BlackBerry10 and Windows Phone intensifying. He also expected alternative operating systems such as Tizen, Firefox, Ubuntu, and Jolla to try and carve out an opportunity by positioning themselves as profitable alternatives.
IDC, a company that provides market forecasts and sales data on smartphones worldwide, expected global smartphone sales to approach the billion mark in 2013. Gartner, on the other hand, predicted sales of worldwide smartphones to be close to 1 billion and sales of feature phones to continue falling. Overall, Gartner estimated overall mobile phone sales to reach 1.9 billion units in 2013.
Despite these changes, the mobile phone market continued to decline, with worldwide mobile phone sales falling for the first time since 2009. However, the shift towards smartphones signalled a change in the way people use and interact with their mobile devices, setting the stage for further developments in the years to come.
