Gartner: Q2 2013 Smartphone and Mobile Phone Market Shares

Android and Samsung gain, Apple and the iOS stumble, Microsoft gains and Blackberry looses – The story doesnot change in the Global Smartphone and Feature Phone markets. Gartner seonds the numbers provided by IDC – showcasing the nearly irrevocable rise and rise of Android at the expense of everyone else.

Apple seems to be caught between a rock and a hard place: go for market share with cheaper iPhone then risk losing premium status; stay premium then risk losing relevance. Apple’s performance outside the US market seems to be weakening. Samsung on the other hand appears to have succeeded in straddling the smartphone landscape.

Nokia’s smartphone numbers indicate it as the come back kid. In its Q2, 2013 report, Nokia reported a rise in Lumia shipments, to 7.4 million, and a drop in feature phone shipments, to 53.7 million. However a neagtive movement on the ASPs pegged it down. Currently, the 30% increment of sales in Lumia’s didnot offset the southward movement of ASPs. Nokia’s smartphone balance and its profitability has still not found a balance.

The Chinese foursome of Huawei, ZTE, Yulong and Lenovo are beginning to dominate the positions 4 to 7 in the smartphone and mobile phone charts indicating the growing strength in China and other Asian smartphone markets.

As smartphones massify and the markets move towards the lower end ASP points, it would be interesting to note how Samsung, Apple and Nokia play out and how the Chinese vendors pick pace. It will be critical for the smartphone makers to step up in the mid-tier and also be more aggressive in emerging markets. Innovation, after all cannot be limited to the high end.