Smartphones – and Apple’s iPhone in particular – may seem ubiquitous in the US (see AdExchanger’s Q1 mobile RTB report). Yet worldwide, Samsung beat out Apple and Android-based smartphone sales in the first quarter 2013, according to Gartner.
Gartner found 426 million mobile phones were sold in the first quarter, up 0.7% from Q1 2012. Worldwide smartphone sales reached 210 million, just about half of all mobile phone sales (49.3%), and up 42.9% from last year’s first quarter. As mobile phone manufacturers focus more on smartphones rather than upgrading feature phones, this could strain the market for the rest of the year, Gartner reported.
“Feature phones users across the world are either finding their existing phones good enough or are waiting for smartphones prices to drop further,” said Anshul Gupta, principal research analyst at Gartner, in a statement. “Either way, the prospect of longer replacement cycles is certainly not good news for both vendors and carriers looking to move users forward.”
Samsung phones accounted for 23.6% of the market share during the quarter, up from 21.1% in Q1 2012. Nokia and Apple followed with 14.8% and 9.0% of the market share, respectively, compared to 19.7% and 7.8% in Q1 2012.
Looking at smartphones specifically, Nokia dropped off the list and Apple’s share jumped to 18.2%, which is still less than the 22.5% market share during Q1 2012. Samsung’s market share of smartphones was higher, 30.8%, an increase from Q1 2012’s 27.6% share. The release of the Samsung Galaxy S4 will continue to boost Samsung worldwide.
With the success of Samsung and the drop in market share for iPhones, Android continues to be the winner in terms of operating systems worldwide, with 74.4% of the market share, up from 56.9% in Q1 2012.
Gupta called Android’s dominance “unshakeable” and added, “With new OSs coming to market such as Tizen, Firefox, and Jolla we expect some market share to be eroded but not enough to question Android’s volume leadership.”
