Gartner: Apple Leads The Smartphone Market By Topping The Chart Among Vendors

Posted on Feb 15 2012 - 10:37am by Editorial Staff

With the news abuzz that smartphone makers – HTC, LG, Nokia and others have all pointing out the decline in smartphone sales, Garters in Q4 report indicates that the Cupertino-based Apple became the world’s biggest smartphone vendor as the iPhone helping the category remain the fastest-growing mobile phones segment.

According to Gartner, Worldwide smartphone sales to end users soared to 149 million units in the fourth quarter of 2011, a 47.3 per cent increase from the fourth quarter of 2010. Total smartphone sales in 2011 reached 472 million units and accounted for 31 percent of all mobile devices sales, up 58 percent from 2010.

Apple had an exceptional fourth quarter, selling 35.5 million smartphones to end users, a 121.4 percent increase year on year. Apple’s continued attention to channel management helped it take full advantage of the strong quarter to further close the gap with Samsung, which saw some inventory build up for its smartphone range.

Big smartphone brands who are in the competing list such as RIM, Sony Ericsson, and Motorola all saw a decline in market share mainly due to Apple and also due to additional price on pressure from both Huawei and ZTE.

Nokia’s mobile phone sales numbered 111.7 million units, an 8.7 percent decrease from last year. “Samsung closed the gap with Nokia in overall market share,” said Ms. Cozza. “Samsung profited from strong smartphone sales of 34 million units in the fourth quarter of 2011. “The quarter saw Samsung and Apple cement their positions further at the top of the market as their brands and new products clearly stood out,” Gartner said.

The quarter was a good one for Android sales which accounted sales of 50.9% of all smartphone sales, up from 30.5% compared to the year-ago quarter. Gartner also attributed that some of this to increased sales of the iPhone 4S.

(Image Source: IAPPS)

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