Global smartphone sales in the third quarter of 2010 hit record high of more than 81 million, accounting for 19.3% of the overall mobile phone sales in the quarter, Gartner has said.
This segment registered a growth of 96% in September 2010 quarter over the same quarter in the previous year. Android platform accounted for 25.5 % of worldwide smartphone sales, making it the second largest operating system (OS) for mobile phones.
"Smartphone OS providers have entered a period of accelerated platform evolution, stimulated by more regular product releases, new platform entrants and new device types," said Roberta Cozza, principal research analyst at Gartner.
Worldwide mobile phone sales to end users totaled 417 million units in the third quarter of 2010, a 35% increase from the third quarter of 2009. The top three worldwide mobile device manufacturers — Nokia, Samsung and LG — remained the same, albeit with reduced market share. The third quarter saw Apple rise into the top five manufacturers, surpassing RIM for fourth place.
"This quarter saw Apple and Android drive record smartphone sales. Apple's share of the smartphone market surpassed Research In Motion (RIM) in North America to put it second behind Android while Android volumes also grew rapidly making it the second largest operating system worldwide," said Carolina Milanesi, research vice-president, Gartner. This is the third consecutive double-digit increase in sales year-on-year, indicating that consumer demand is healthy," she added.
In the third quarter of 2010, Nokia sold 110.4 million units into the channel. Its volume sales were slightly lower than expected due to shortages of components, such as camera modules and displays, which restricted availability of lower cost devices.
Samsung had a strong third quarter, as mobile phone sales reached 71.7 million handsets in the third quarter of 2010, up 18.2 % from the third quarter of 2009. However, its market share experienced a slight decline to 17.2% in the third quarter of 2010. Samsung's smartphone market share reached 10% in the third quarter of 2010. Samsung sold close to 1 million bada (a Samsung operating system) devices in the third quarter of 2010, and 6.6 million Android phones, making Samsung the top Android seller.
LG sold 27.5 million mobile devices in the third quarter of 2010, as its global market share dropped to 6.6%.
For 2010, Gartner expects overall devices sales to show over 30% year-on-year growth.
The impact of media tablets on mobile device sales will be tested in 2011. Gartner forecasts that media tablets (such as the Apple iPad) will reach 54.8 million units in 2011.
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