Gartner: Nokia Held Off Apple in Smartphone Sales in 2Q 2011

[MacRumors]

Late last month, Apple made headlines when a series of research firms including IDC, Strategy Analytics and ABI Research all announced that Apple had passed Nokia and held off Samsung to become the world's largest smartphone vendor by volume during the second quarter of 2011. But all of those firms study the mobile phone market based on shipments from the manufacturers out to the distribution channels, not end sales to users.

Gartner today revealed its data based on final end-user sales, showing that Nokia did indeed hold off Apple for the title for the title of top-selling smartphone vendor by that metric. The key to the difference in assessments is that Nokia substantially reduced its handset volume shipped out for distribution, opting instead to dramatically pare down stocks already in the channel.

"The sales efforts of the channel, combined with Nokia's greater concentration in retail and distributors' sales, saw Nokia destock more than 9 million units overall and 5 million smartphones, helping it hold on to its position as the leading smartphone manufacturer by volume," said Ms. Cozza. "However, we will not see a repeat of this performance in the third quarter of 2011, as Nokia's channel is pretty lean."

Nokia is transitioning its smartphone lineup from its own Symbian operating system to Windows Phone 7, and thus it makes sense that the manufacturer is prioritizing discounted sales of Symbian handsets already out for distribution to help speed that transition. But even accounting for the distribution channel drawdown, Nokia's smartphone business is struggling, with sales to end users actually falling slightly year-over-year as the overall smartphone market and sales from many of the the top vendors are growing dramatically.

Gartner highlights smartphone sales by operating system rather than manufacturer, showing that Google's Android operating system has continued its momentum that has led the platform to a commanding lead with 43.4% of the smartphone market during the quarter when looking at sales to end users. Symbian took second place with 22.1% of the market while Apple's iOS took third place with 18.2%

Article Link: Gartner: Nokia Held Off Apple in Smartphone Sales in 2Q 2011

 

[Popeye206]

What I find interesting is that Microsoft has lost market with the new Win7 phone OS. Significant loss.

RIM, Nokia and MS are in trouble. Android and iOS are taking over the smart phone market.

 

[*LTD*]

Gartner: Nokia Held Off Apple in Smartphone Sales in 2Q 2011

. . . by selling what they had left of their junk for peanuts. Did they auction off the office furniture too? Hey I'll happily take a ceiling fan.

So unimpressed.

 

[840quadra]

What I find interesting is that Microsoft has lost market with the new Win7 phone OS. Significant loss.

RIM, Nokia and MS are in trouble. Android and iOS are taking over the smart phone market.

I saw that too. I think that is the bigger story than Nokia's current place at this point in time.

 

[chrisbeach]

Gartner and Microsoft are linked

Microsoft have a massive investment in Gartner, creating a conflict of interests which affects its reporting on Nokia (now Nokia is contracted to use Win Phone 7):

http://techrights.org/wiki/index.php/Gartner_Group

 

[840quadra]

Microsoft have a massive investment in Gartner, creating a conflict of interests which affects its reporting on Nokia (now Nokia is contracted to use Win Phone 7):

http://techrights.org/wiki/index.php/Gartner_Group

Not attacking your post, but I am not sure what you are getting at. Both Nokia, and Microsoft show an overall decrease in the above posted chart.

 

[nylonsteel]

re nokia os

symbian still around

"kill em all..." - metallica

 

[Samuriajackon]

Gartner: Nokia Held Off Apple in Smartphone Sales in 2Q 2011

. . . by selling what they had left of their junk for peanuts. Did they auction off the office furniture too? Hey I'll happily take a ceiling fan.

So unimpressed.

I've bought hundreds of their phones...I'm using them to tile my bathroom near the tub...

 

[res08hao]

One question:

Who buys that crap?

 

[MonkeySee....]

Who there hell is buying Nokia phones?

I don't know anyone who owns one anymore. To be fair though I don't know a lot of people. haha

 

[rafaltrus]

iOS and Android are winning over others because the companies e.g.HTC, but especially Apple, are promoting their products on a large! scale without as many failures

Nokia: http://www.mymobilescoop.com/?p=3893

 

[ChazUK]

It's a shame to see WP7 unable to take on iOS and Android IMO. Although a little behind in features, it's a nice OS to use.

I have no idea what will happen to Nokia but licencing both OS's like HTC does would have been a wiser choice IMO. Even a MeeGo push might have been better than relying on Microsoft so much.

 

[Tiger8]

Who there hell is buying Nokia phones?

I don't know anyone who owns one anymore. To be fair though I don't know a lot of people. haha

Not in the US, but Nokia is a significant player in the global market, especially the emerging markets. You can get a Blackberry lookalike keyboard smartphone Nokia for less than $100, unlocked no contract. You can get a touchscreen smartphone for less than $150.

That's why I think if Apple creates an affordable iPhone, Nokia will RIP, Microsoft or not.

 

[840quadra]

It's a shame to see WP7 unable to take on iOS and Android IMO. Although a little behind in features, it's a nice OS to use.

I have no idea what will happen to Nokia but licencing both OS's like HTC does would have been a wiser choice IMO. Even a MeeGo push might have been better than relying on Microsoft so much.

I don't personally like the WP7 interface, however, I loved that Microsoft was getting into the mix. I hoped they would do well in order to spark innovation in both Google and Apple products, making it a fast paced game with 3 players!

Perhaps there is still hope in the future, Microsoft has deep pockets.

 

[rafaltrus]

Not in the US, but Nokia is a significant player in the global market, especially the emerging markets. You can get a Blackberry lookalike keyboard smartphone Nokia for less than $100, unlocked no contract. You can get a touchscreen smartphone for less than $150.

That's why I think if Apple creates an affordable iPhone, Nokia will RIP, Microsoft or not.

Apple is waiting for right timing to take over the market. If they release the low-end iPhone at the right time, i.e. when a lot of potential customers indicate they are willing to buy an iPhone, and only iPhone, but only if it were cheaper... they may win the war.

 

[ChazUK]

Perhaps there is still hope in the future, Microsoft has deep pockets.

Well said. Those deep pockets made XBOX an eventual success so you never know.

I just find the WP7 UI and experience so different to Symbian/Windows Mobile/Android/iOS that is is refreshing to use and it performs very well despite the (now) low end specifications it's running on.

 

[cube]

Nokia sales crashed only because of the biggest blunder ever.

 

[nd572]

I am actually looking forward to the new Nokia Windows phones, I have a feeling they are going to produce a bigger competitor to the iphone than people are giving them credit for.

 

[shiseiryu1]

I agree

Apple is waiting for right timing to take over the market. If they release the low-end iPhone at the right time, i.e. when a lot of potential customers indicate they are willing to buy an iPhone, and only iPhone, but only if it were cheaper... they may win the war.

I agree with this. Also I think one of the reasons that Andriod has grown as much as it has is because Apple was exclusive with AT&T so long. I talked to many people in the past who said, "yeah I wanted an iPhone but I don't have AT&T"

It'd be nice if with iPhone5 Apple opens it up to the rest of the carriers. Then if they add a lower-priced option they'll really see their market share grow. Although, I'm not sure if Apple cares as much about market share as they do having the "best products" so it'll be interesting to see if they go after the lower-end market (because features will have to be omitted which may fracture their user-base and make it more annoying for developers).


*ADDITION*
Also, I think you have to be pretty impressed with Apples numbers considering how much their devices cost. I see Android smartphones being given away for free or sold dirt cheap...sure there are some higher priced super-phones for uber geeks but overall it's easy to get a cheap/free non-Apple smartphone. With that being the case Apple's numbers are quite impressive.

 

[iSee]

I didn't even realize Symbian was a smart phone OS.

 

[mentalward]

It's a shame to see WP7 unable to take on iOS and Android IMO. Although a little behind in features, it's a nice OS to use.

I have no idea what will happen to Nokia but licencing both OS's like HTC does would have been a wiser choice IMO. Even a MeeGo push might have been better than relying on Microsoft so much.

The Microsoft numbers in this chart can be a little misleading, as they are a combination of both Windows Phone 7 and the older Windows Mobile 6. WM6 was actually selling in fair numbers to corporations in 2010, but has since fallen off a cliff. Not a moment too soon, IMO.

Windows Phone 7 is actually growing compared to last year, just not quickly enough to offset the losses incurred by WM6.

 

[ChazUK]

I agree with this. Also I think one of the reasons that Andriod has grown as much as it has is because Apple was exclusive with AT&T so long. I talked to many people in the past who said, "yeah I wanted an iPhone but I don't have AT&T"

In other parts of the world, carrier exclusivity doesn't come in to play but it hasn't stopped Android's growth at all.

 

[cube]

I didn't even realize Symbian was a smart phone OS.

I don't even know why the big mass of Java phones are not called smartphones.

 

[rafaltrus]

I agree with this. Also I think one of the reasons that Andriod has grown as much as it has is because Apple was exclusive with AT&T so long. I talked to many people in the past who said, "yeah I wanted an iPhone but I don't have AT&T"

It'd be nice if with iPhone5 Apple opens it up to the rest of the carriers. Then if they add a lower-priced option they'll really see their market share grow. Although, I'm not sure if Apple cares as much about market share as they do having the "best products" so it'll be interesting to see if they go after the lower-end market (because features will have to be omitted which may fracture their user-base and make it more annoying for developers).

I have a couple of apps that are for the newest iPhone/iPod devices only. If I were asked to remove some of the features to provide two version of my app, for iPhone5 and iPhone5 LE (low-end? lol) but having XXXXX more sales in a month in exchange, I'd say: "Hell yeah!"

 

[cube]

WP7 does not have Java. The failure count goes to infinite.