Pushed into second place for featurephones and smartphones, the Finnish company has problems - but Android and Apple can claim laurels
Smartphone montage
Nokia, Apple and Android-based phones had mixed fortunes in the first quarter of 2011, according to IDC
More evidence of Nokia's deepening problems have emerged, with new data showing that in the first three months of 2011 it was pushed into second place by Samsung as the biggest vendor of mobile Acer as07b41 battery handsets in western Europe, and overtaken by Apple for first place in the smartphone market in the region.
But Android was the clear winner overall, propelling handset makers which offered it to enormous growth and leaping from fourth place last year to take the lead for smartphone OS share in the quarter.
The data from IDC shows Finnish handset maker Nokia's overall sales in western Europe slipping by 10% year-on-year in a market that grew by 5% to 45m handsets, with Samsung bagging the top place with 13.2m, a 29.3% share.
Nokia was second with 12.6m, and Apple came third overall with its smartphone-only iPhone range, selling 4.4m. Research in Motion (RIM) and HTC had 3.5m. All except Nokia grew at least as fast as the market, with HTC tripling its sales and Apple and RIM both growing by nearly 50%.
In smartphones, Apple's 4.4m sale was a 49% growth year-on-year, but in a market that grew by 76% it saw its market share eroded, from 24.6% to 20.8%.
But the news was worse for Nokia which again saw a collapse in sales, down from 4.9m in the same period in 2010 to 4.2m between January and March. That meant its share fell dramatically from the market-leading 40.6% down to 19.6%. Two years ago, Nokia had a 57% share of the smartphone market. RIM and HTC were behind it with 16.5% shares, followed by Samsung.
The total smartphone Dell vostro 1520 battery market in western Europe compromised 21.2m handsets, up by 76% from the first quarter of2010. Smartphone sales made up 47% of handset sales, compared to 28% a year earlier.
Nokia has seen its market share eroded over the past few years in both
smartphones and featurephones. It reached a crisis point in February when its newly appointed chief executive Stephen Elop announced that Symbian would be abandoned in favour of Microsoft's Windows Phone. However phones using that OS are not expected before October. Elop said that 150m more Symbian smartphones will be sold, but it is seeing its share being eroded dramatically, especially in developed markets where it could charge a premium.
In operating systems, IDC said that Android was the leading smartphone OS, with 35.7% market share.
Apple's iOS is next in smartphones with a 20.8% share (excluding iPod Touch and iPads), and then Nokia's Symbian Hp pavilion dv4 battery with 19.6%, and RIM with 16.5%. Last year Android was in fourth place, having just overtaken Windows Mobile - the now-defunct OS from Microsoft.
It is not clear from the data what share Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 OS had; its figures would be embedded in those of Samsung, HTC and LG, and was not broken out. Microsoft has not provided any figures for activation of phones, though some estimates put it as low as 1.5m since its launch in October. Prices of Windows Phone 7 handsets have been dropping recently, apparently as carriers and retailers try to unload stock.
"Companies like Nokia (and Ericsson in the past) may have strong brands and big market shares as Nokia always had, but can be overtaken by their competitors on a blink of an eye," said Francisco Jeronimo, IDC's European mobile devices research manager. "Nokia is one of the most recognized and appreciated brands in Europe, but Samsung was the one understanding the trends first and moving faster."
