Despite sales growth, Apple's iPhone loses market share - report
The data from ABI Research, via The Wall Street Journal, shows that Apple's smartphone market share dropped from 18.1 percent in the third quarter of 2009 to 16.6 percent in the fourth quarter. This despite the fact that Apple sold 8.7 million iPhones in the fourth quarter — an 18 percent increase from the previous quarter, and Apple's best quarter ever in terms of total sales.
However, as noted by similar research from Strategy Analytics, Apple also saw a year-over-year increase in market share, growing from 10.8 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008 to an estimated 16.4 percent at the end of 2009 — just 0.2 percent off from the ABI Research findings.
ABI's Michael Morgan told the Journal that the iPhone could be suffering a case of "Razr burn," referring to Motorola's popular cell phone which dominated the sales charts for years but lost favor when its design went unchanged. But the report quickly discredited that notion.
"That of course is a little rich," the report said of Morgan's commentary. "The California device maker still enjoys profit margins among the industryâs highest. And the attention it commands is unrivaled (see the frenzy around the iPad unveiling last week)."
The overall smartphone market grew 26 percent in the fourth quarter, according to ABI, thanks to increased sales of Google's Android mobile operating system and Nokia increasing sales by 4.6 million. The quarter also saw the high-profile introduction of the Motorola Droid smartphone.
"2009 may have started with a whimper but by (the fourth quarter of) 2009 the global mobile handset market ended with a pretty reasonable bang," said Jake Saunders, vice president for forecasting at ABI Research. "We estimate 336.5 million handsets were shipped in 4Q-2009, up 15.1 percent (quarter over quarter)."
Nokia remains the overall mobile phone dominant market leader with 37.7 percent, though its share of the smartphone market has dropped significantly in recent years. Nokia and Apple are currently engaged in a number of lawsuits filed in court and with the International Trade Commission over allegations of patent infringement on both parties behalves.
In second place was Samsung, which captured 20.5 percent of the global phone market in the fourth quarter of 2009. LG took 10.1 percent; Sony-Ericsson was in fourth with 4.3 percent; and Motorola took 3.6 percent. Despite its significant slice of the much-smaller smartphone market, Apple did not register in the top five of total mobile phone sales.
157 Comments
Verizon's calling....................don't be stupid Apple.......
Sort the camera out and add a flash, make sure you don't run out of iPhones so get your supply levels right, and get on more carriers.
There are a lot of copycats out there that will add additional features to make their phones seem better, that's usually rubbish - but Apple really need to focus on the camera, it's a weakness and something people pick up on a lot! I'm not saying the camera is the most important thing, but there are many other who think it is!
Nokia remains the overall mobile phone dominant market leader with 37.7 percent
Everyone uses all of Nokia's "convergence devices" - smartphones and mobile computers - in calculating their market share. Nokia also breaks out their Eseries and Nseries phones - 10.7 million this quarter, 8.9 million last quarter - which is their smart phones.
If someone thinks I am wrong - please point out why.
http://www.nokia.com/about-nokia/fin...mation/q4-2009
I know that many Americans would love a CDMA iPhone, but the rest of planet earth is happy with GSM, with multiple carriers in many countries the growth should explode in 2010!
No point making a CDMA phone really, not enough market for it.
ABI's Michael Morgan told the Journal that the iPhone could be suffering a case of "Razr burn," referring to Motorola's popular cell phone which dominated the sales charts for years but lost favor when its design went unchanged. But the report quickly discredited that notion.
"That of course is a little rich," the report said of Morgan's commentary.
Actually that is not too far fetch or too "rich"... I don't own any of the three previous iPhone models but I would be curious what Apple/Steve Jobs means regarding the next iPhone will be A+ upgrade to see if there is some different form factor or what Apple has in mind. Of course there is only so much one can do I guess when it comes to designing a phone that needs a touchscreen to operate the phone and associated apps that come with it or are purchased via the app store.
But I am willing to wait and see what Steve has up his sleeve regarding any iPhone redesign and whether there will be multiple US Cellular Carriers! Who knows maybe this iPhone revision will cause me to jump ship of my "just a phone" to a "smart phone"! Maybe...