Some 428.7m mobile devices have been sold worldwide in the second quarter of 2011, which marks a 16.5pc increase from Q2 2010, according to Gartner, Inc.
Smartphone sales rose 74pc year-on-year and accounted for a quarter of overall sales in the second quarter of 2011, up from 17pc in Q2 2010.
“Smartphone sales continued to rise at the expense of feature phones,” said Roberta Cozza, principal research analyst at Gartner.
“Consumers in mature markets are choosing entry-level and midrange Android smartphones over feature phones, partly due to carriers’ and manufacturers’ promotions.”
However, replacement sales in Western Europe showed signs of fatigue as smartphone sales declined quarter-on-quarter.
Google and Apple were the winners in the smartphone ecosystem. The combined share of Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android in the smartphone operating system (OS) market doubled to nearly 62pc in the second quarter of 2011, up from just over 31pc in the same period of 2010.
Gartner analysts observed that these two OSs have the usability that consumers enjoy, the apps consumers feel they need, and increasingly a portfolio of services delivered by the platform owner, as well.
“We expect manufacturers and distributors to remain cautious about raising their stock levels in the second half of 2011, following the recent uncertainty on the world financial markets,” said Annette Zimmermann, principal research analyst at Gartner.
Gartner expects sales of mobile devices to grow around 12pc in 2011.
Table 1
Worldwide Mobile Device Sales to End Users by Vendor in 2Q11 (Thousands of Units)
| Vendor | 2Q11 Units | 2Q11 Market Share (%) | 2Q10 Units | 2Q10 Market Share (%) |
| Nokia | 97,869.3 | 22.8 | 111,473.7 | 30.3 |
| Samsung | 69,827.6 | 16.3 | 65,328.2 | 17.8 |
| LG | 24,420.8 | 5.7 | 29,366.7 | 8.0 |
| Apple | 19,628.8 | 4.6 | 8,743.0 | 2.4 |
| ZTE | 13,070.2 | 3.0 | 6,730.6 | 1.8 |
| Research In Motion | 12,652.3 | 3.0 | 11,628.8 | 3.2 |
| HTC | 11,016.1 | 2.6 | 5,908.8 | 1.6 |
| Motorola | 10,221.4 | 2.4 | 9,109.4 | 2.5 |
| Huawei Device | 9,026.1 | 2.1 | 5,276.4 | 1.4 |
| Sony Ericsson | 7,266.5 | 1.7 | 11,008.5 | 3.0 |
| Others | 153,662.1 | 35.8 | 103,412.6 | 28.1 |
| Total | 428,661.2 | 100.0 | 367,986.7 | 100.0 |
Source: Gartner (August 2011)
Table 2
Worldwide Smartphone Sales to End Users by Operating System in 2Q11 (Thousands of Units)
| Operating System | 2Q11 Units | 2Q11 Market Share (%) | 2Q10 Units | 2Q10 Market Share (%) |
| Android | 46,775.9 | 43.4 | 10,652.7 | 17.2 |
| Symbian | 23,853.2 | 22.1 | 25,386.8 | 40.9 |
| iOS | 19,628.8 | 18.2 | 8,743.0 | 14.1 |
| Research In Motion | 12,652.3 | 11.7 | 11,628.8 | 18.7 |
| Bada | 2,055.8 | 1.9 | 577.0 | 0.9 |
| Microsoft | 1,723.8 | 1.6 | 3,058.8 | 4.9 |
| Others | 1,050.6 | 1.0 | 2,010.9 | 3.2 |
| Total | 107,740.4 | 100.0 | 62,058.1 | 100.0 |
Source: Gartner (August 2011)
Photo: The Apple iPhone
