Canalys has published its final mobile phone shipment estimates across the 50+ countries that it tracks. The total mobile phone market, at 438.1 million units, was flat year-on-year, while the worldwide smart phone market grew 37%. Android smart phones accounted for 34% of all phone shipments and iOS phones 11%. Smart phones now represent almost 50% of all the phones that shipped in Q4 2012.
In the smart phone market, Android handsets accounted for 69% of the 216.5 million shipped. Samsung had a very strong quarter, growing 78%, while the Chinese vendors Huawei, ZTE, Lenovo and Yulong all grew by triple-digit percentages. However, Android’s share dipped sequentially from 74% as Apple’s share grew from 15% to 22% on the strength of the iPhone 5. BlackBerry and Windows Phone shares remained unchanged sequentially at 4% and 2% respectively.
“BlackBerry, Microsoft and Nokia, as well as other Android vendors, have strategies and devices in place to attack, but the task is daunting to say the least,” said Pete Cunningham, Principal Analyst, in a statement. ‘When we look at the whole of 2012, Nokia remained the #3 smart phone vendor, shipping 35 million units, but Apple in 2nd place shipped 101 million more handsets. First-placed Samsung shipped 74 million more than Apple – the gaps are colossal. But there is still a big opportunity as smart phone penetration increases around the world. Vendors left in the wake of the top vendors must at the very least improve their portfolios, time-to-market and marketing, as well as communicate their differentiators. Microsoft, BlackBerry and other new OS entrants, such as Mozilla, must make the OS switch as simple as possible and drive and localize their respective app and content ecosystems.”
Huawei took 3rd place for the first time in Q4 and ZTE 4th. As well as their home markets, they have been relatively successful in the US, where ZTE was fourth and Huawei 5th, driven by their portfolios of low-cost LTE smart phones. Even so, both vendors took less than 5% share each there.
Sony fell out of the top five this quarter, and Lenovo moved in. It was one of the fastest-growing smart phone vendors, growing 216% year-on-year and shifting 9.5 million units to take fifth place. “China made up 98% of Lenovo’s shipments with a handful of emerging markets making up the rest. Its struggle to gain a foothold in markets outside of China means that it may be forced down the acquisition route – as it was with its PC business – hence the speculation about BlackBerry,” said Jessica Kwee, Analyst, in a statement.
In the largest phone market in the world, China, smart phones dominated shipments, making up 73% of the market compared to 40% a year ago. Volumes of smart phones in China grew 113% to 64.7 million units, with Samsung taking the top spot followed by Lenovo and Yulong. Huawei leapfrogged ZTE by over a million units to take 4th place. “China is a massive growth prospect, but Apple is not making the market share impact there that it is in other markets. The lack of a device on the China Mobile network is a big drawback, combined with high price points. Addressing these issues with the combination of a TD-SCDMA device and a cheaper model would open the flood-gates,” said Nicole Peng, China Research Director.
Source: Canalys
MacDailyNews Take: Looking for an AAPL catalyst? A low-cost (pre-paid) TD-SCDMA iPhone model with a China Mobile deal certainly wouldn’t hurt.
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BUT BUT… iPhone 5 demand has fallen OFF A CLIFF!! It’s THE END OF THE LINE FOR APPLE!!! Tim Cook has FAILED AT LIFE!!!
DOOM I tell you, DOOM!!!
Apples is DOOMED!
Financial success = DOOM! (From the ANAL-ysts 101 manual)
Oh, what a flop!
The reports of Apple’s demise were greatly exaggerated. And delivered from the wrong orifice.
Anal-ists are looking dumber and dumber everyday. The proof is in the news.
AAPL will drop as this news may have shown Apple growth may have peaked .
About third of those “Android” smartphones are actually not related to Google. They are not connected to Google Play Market, and often not to even any application store at all.
And from the rest about 22% of true Android ecosystem smartphones, major part never really used in smartphone mode at all. This is why Android lags behind iOS in applications sales, as well as web traffic.
And many are not even “smart” phones.
I want to know which Samdung employee leaked the number of their phones shipped.
Lee.
“Looking for an AAPL catalyst? A low-cost (pre-paid) TD-SCDMA iPhone model with a China Mobile deal certainly wouldn’t hurt.”
Neither would it help. Apple isn’t looking to flood the market with low cost handsets. Those doing that today are making little to no profit, and aren’t long for this world. Apple wants the higher end consumer that appreciates, and is willing to pay for, quality. That same consumer is higher educated and wealthier, which translates to higher web usage and much more ($) spent online, both characteristics that are in high demand by third party vendors and services.
Those that continually advocate lower priced this and that, have zero appreciation/knowledge/experience in creating a market, then making a profit from it. Their skill set stops at “make it cheaper”.
This is why an iPhone Nano, with limited functionality could be appealing. China mobile only has about 60 million 3G subscribers, but a Nano with 2G (and maybe 3G) capability that allows users to check mail and download music (smaller file sizes) could be appealing for the “aspirationals”.
I hate to say this but Wall Street doesn’t care about quality or profit when it comes to Apple. What matters is market share. Samsung is going to pump out so many low-cost smartphones this year, it’s going to make Wall Street’s head spin. Samsung has found a way in and they’re going to pour it on just to make the iPhone’s numbers look, well, disappointing. All the hedge funds will see is Apple’s iPhone falling further and further behind in sales to the entire Android platform and the “Apple is doomed” meme will continue.
Wall Street doesn’t even notice the iPhone has an ecosystem. Or if WS does, they believe the ecosystem can be easily broken by Android’s cheaper devices. It’s like you said, Wall Street’s idea of strength is “make it cheaper (in order to increase market share).” I’m not sure why they’ve picked highest market share as the major indicator of success, but it certainly seems to mean a lot to investors (hedge funds). With consumers spending so much money on iOS content and third-party accessories, it would almost seem prohibitive to suddenly switch platforms if there wasn’t a clear-cut advantage, but that’s just my take.
I took a glance at LinkedIn today and saw the stock up $26 or around 21%. Hell, that company doesn’t have any profits and has a P/E close to 1000 and the share price is sitting around $150. It’s another one of those head-scratcher stocks that Wall Street seems to love as they’re able to turn vapor into cash. It’s a useful company, but with such a high P/E they’re not going to be able to produce that sort of revenue in 20 years.
Save us AnalCysts! Predict better days for Apple, despite the fact that Apple continues to be the most successful tech company in world history, or Apple’s gonna DIE!
Propaganda versus Fact.
Which do you choose? Or is that too difficult a choice for you?