28 January 2011

Handset shipments reach 400 million in Q4/2010

Global handset shipments grew 16% year-on-year to 400 million units in fourth-quarter 2010, according to market research firm Strategy Analytics.

“Apple was a star performer during the quarter, as it once again outgrew major rivals, held its top-five ranking, and announced a potentially lucrative tie-up with mega-operator Verizon Wireless in the US,” says senior analyst Alex Spektor. Apple’s market share of 4.1% is up from 2.5% in Q4/2009.

“It was a mixed quarter for the world’s major handset vendors,” notes director Neil Mawston. “Some brands outperformed, such as Apple, while others underperformed, such as LG and Nokia [slipping back due to tougher competition],” he elaborates. “LG continued to lose ground due to a weak smartphone portfolio, while Nokia suffered ongoing component shortages and sluggish sales in the important US market.”

LG’s market share has slipped from 9.8% in Q4/2009 to 7.7%, and Nokia’s from 36.8% to 31%. Meanwhile, Samsung has grown slightly from 20% to 20.2% and Blackberry-maker RIM from 3.1% to 3.7%. Most significantly perhaps, ‘Other’ (non-top-five) vendors have grown in market share from 27.7% to 33.5%.

Motorola shipped 11.3 million handsets in Q4/2010, of which 43% were smartphones. Significantly, the growing ratio of smartphone shipments, mostly Android, enabled Motorola’s handset division to make its first profit since Q4/2006.

For full-year 2010, handset shipments grew 16.3% to a record 1.36 billion units, driven by smartphones in mature markets and multi-SIM models in emerging markets. After shipments actually shrank by –0.6% in 2009 due to the economic downturn, the mobile industry recovered robustly in 2010, concludes Strategy Analytics.

Shipments (millions)

Q4/09

2009

 

Q4/10

2010

 

Nokia

126.9

431.8

123.7

453.0

Samsung

68.8

227.1

80.7

280.2

LG

33.9

117.9

30.6

116.7

RIM

10.7

34.5

14.6

48.8

Apple

8.7

25.1

16.2

47.5

Others

95.4

 

333.2

 

133.8

 

413.8

 

Total

344.4

 

1169.6

 

399.6

 

1360.0

 

 

Vendor marketshare %

Q4/09

2009

Q4/10

2010

 

Nokia

36.8%

36.9%

31.0%

33.3%

Samsung

20.0%

19.4%

20.2%

20.6%

LG

9.8%

10.1%

7.7%

8.6%

RIM

3.1%

2.9%

3.7%

3.6%

Apple

2.5%

2.1%

4.1%

3.5%

Others

27.7%

28.5%

33.5%

30.4%

 

Total Growth Year-over-Year

17.2%

–0.6%

16.0%

16.3%

 

Table: Handset vendor shipments and market share in Q4/2010.

See related items:

Handset shipments reach 327m in Q3

Asia-Pacific helping push global handset shipments to 1.34bn in 2010

Handset market grows to 346.2m in Q3, while Samsung gains market share

Mobile handset shipments to reach 1.43bn in 2011

Tags: Mobile handset shipments

Visit: www.strategyanalytics.com

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