Global smartphone market has reached an all-time high with more than a billion shipments the world over in 2013. According to International Data Corporation, (IDC) the sales figures are 38.4% higher than 2012’s 725.3 million. The numbers imply that smartphones have reached about one-seventh of world’s population.
Top Five Smartphone Vendors, Shipments, and Market Share, 2013 (Units in Millions)Vendor2013 Shipment Volumes2013 Market Share2012 Shipment Volumes2012 Market ShareYear-over-Year Change
Samsung313.931.3%219.730.3%42.9%
Apple153.415.3%135.918.7%12.9%
Huawei48.84.9%29.14.0%67.5%
LG47.74.8%26.33.6%81.1%
Lenovo45.54.5%23.73.3%91.7%
Others394.939.3%290.540.1%35.9%
Total1,004.2100.0%725.3100.0%38.4%
Source: IDC
In the year 2013, a total of 1.82 billion mobile phones were shipped worldwide, which includes both smartphones and feature phones. Samsung tops the list of smartphones shipment with a whopping 31.3% (446.7 million units) while Apple could manage 15.3 percent only (153.4 million devices). These two mobile giants were followed closely by Huawei at 4.9% (16.4 million units), LG at 4.8% (13.2 million units), and Lenovo at 4.5% (13.9 million units), which rounded up the top 5 in the competition. According to IDC, Nokia shipped a total of 251 million devices, which accounted for a sum of smartphone and feature phones. For Nokia it is a significant 25.2 percent drop as compared to 2012.
Ryan Reith, program director with IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker said: “Among the top trends driving smartphone growth are large screen devices and low cost…Of the two, I have to say that low cost is the key difference maker. Cheap devices are not the attractive segment that normally grabs headlines, but IDC data shows this is the portion of the market that is driving volume. Markets like China and India are quickly moving toward a point where sub-$150 smartphones are the majority of shipments.”
According to another reputable research firm Strategy Analytics, global smartphone shipments were noted to be 990 million units. According to Strategy Analytics, the figure is up by 41% as compared to previous year, which saw the shipment of only 700 million devices. However, the firm also claimed that the rate of growth of smartphone penetration was down in 2013 as compared to 43 percent in the previous year. This drop has been speculated for already high penetration in most global big markets like the USA. According to Ramon T. Llamas, research manager of mobile phones at IDC “…Growth will plateau at some point. Probably not this year, but in the next five or six years…We’ve already reached saturation in the U.S., so there will be slower growth in the future.” The research figure of Strategy Analytics shows the following figures:
1. Samsung at 32.3 percent
2. Apple at 15.5 percent
3. Huawei at 5.1 percent
4. LG at 4.8 percent; and
5. Lenovo at 4.6 percent
Linda Sui, senior analyst at Strategy Analytics has predicted the future of competition by saying that even though Samsung and Apple presently got a good grip over the market by extensive distribution channels, large marketing budgets and attractive product portfolios, they should be ready for hard competition by “second-tier” smartphone brands like Huawei, Lenovo, and LG.
There is a big difference in the markets covered by the Smartphone giants. While Samsung and Apple are spread all over the world, Huawei is expanding its market share in European countries. Similarly LG is swiftly expanding in Latin America and Lenovo in the China. Chances are that the markets of these brands will soon be overlapping with that of Apple and Samsung markets.
Author Bio : Mark Bew is an Associate Editor is an IT company. He writes on a variety of subjects with a strong focus on language learning apps.
