During the first quarter of 2011 427.8 million mobile phones where sold worldwide, an increase of 19% over the same period in 2010. The number is part of Gartner research released on Thursday and it still shows that the smartphone market continues to grow.
According to Gartner, smartphone sales accounted for 23.6% of total handsets sold in the period, an increase of 85% year over year, and the arrival of intermediate devices (cheaper) will lead to an acceleration in the sale of such phone . "The participation of smartphones could be higher, but manufacturers have announced several high-end handsets in the first quarter that just hit the stores in the second quarter of 2011. We believe that many consumers postponed their purchases to wait for these models," said Roberta Cozza, Gartner analyst, in a statement.
Among handset manufacturers, Nokia still leading, with 107.6 million phones sold. The Finnish lost 5.5 percentage points of market share over the same period of 2010 and, according to Gartner, it faces challenges from competitors with Android and lack of supplies from Japan, but should reduce the price of handsets while expects to launch the first smartphone with Windows 7 Phone, this year.
The second position is with Samsung (68.8 million sold), followed by LG (23.9 million), Apple (16.8 million) and RIM (13 million). Gartner says Apple has doubled the sale of iPhones in the previous year, by selling smartphone in 90 countries and 186 carriers.
Among the operating systems, Android, the first position, and IOS, the third, dominate the scene. There were 13.2 million Androids sold in the first quarter (against 5.2 in the period in 2010, or a jump of 9.6% market share to 36%) and 16.8 million devices with SOI (against 8.3 million the previous year). Symbian remains in second place and falling (44% market share in 2011, 27.4% of the market now), with 27.5 million units sold. Nokia's alliance with Microsoft for Windows phone is considered the great news of the period, and the retirement of Symbian.
Windows 7 Phone represents less than half the sales of handsets with Microsoft systems. The total released by Gartner is 3.6 million units sold during the period (3.6% market share), with only 1.6 million units with the new operating system. In the longer term, Gartner believes that support from Nokia will accelerate the growth of Windows Phone.
