This is regardless of a better than expected sales of Asha series of phones which in fact helped the company lessen the market share loss which otherwise would have pushed Nokia out of number 10 rankings.
As per the report, "Globally sales of mobile phones declined 3 per cent in third quarter of 2012. At the same time, Smartphone sales increased 47 per cent compared to last year. Smartphone sales accounted for 39.6 per cent of total mobile phone sales; however the growth could be hampered by the rise of tablets in the subsequent quarters ".
For Nokia, this change in choice of phones means that the segment in which it is best-selling - i.e. feature phones with its Asha series of full touch phone, is actually fast decreasing. Smartphone’s segment, where Nokia holds very small market share is actually increasing very fast. Presently Nokia has 19.2 per cent market share as compared to 23.9 per cent last year.
On the other hand, Samsung has increased its lead further in Smartphone’s and has overtaken Nokia in overall sales in last couple of quarters. Overall it has 22.9 per cent market share while in Smartphone space Apple contributes 46.5 per cent sales.
As stated by the analyst in Gartner, "Smartphone’s continued to fuel sales of mobile phones worldwide with sales rising to 169.2 million units in the third quarter of 2012. The Smartphone market was dominated by Apple and Samsung. "Both vendors together controlled 46.5 per cent of Smartphone market leaving a handful of vendors fighting over a distant third spot".
He further added, "RIM moved to the No 3 spot with HTC not far behind, at No 4. "Both HTC and RIM have seen their sales declining in past few quarters, and the challenges might prevent them from holding on to their current rankings in coming quarters.”
As per the Gartner analysts, “There will be a lower-than-usual boost from the holiday season. Consumers are either cautious with their spending or finding new gadgets like tablets, as more attractive presents.”
Samsung's mobile phones sales continued to pick up the pace, adding up almost 98 million units in the third quarter of 2012, up 18.6 per cent year-on-year. Samsung saw strong demand for Galaxy Smartphone’s across different price points, and it further widened the gap with Apple in the Smartphone market, which sold 55 million Smartphone’s in the third quarter of 2012. Samsung commanded 32.5 per cent of the global Smartphone market in the third quarter of 2012.
In the third quarter of 2012, Nokia's mobile phone sales declined 21.9 per cent, but overall sales at 82.3 million were far better than Gartner's early estimate, largely driven by increased sales of the Asha full touch range.
This as bad quarter for the Nokia with Smartphone sales as they went on the No 7 position worldwide with 7.2 million Smartphone’s sold in the third quarter. The arrival of the new Lumia devices on Windows 8 should help to stop the decline in share in the fourth quarter of 2012, although it won't be until 2013 to see a noteworthy improvement in Nokia's position.
Apple's sales to end users added to 23.6 million units in the third quarter of 2012, up 36.2 per cent year-on-year. As per the Gartner analysts, “With iPhone 5 launching in more territories in the fourth quarter of 2012, including China, and the upcoming holiday season, it is expected that Apple will have its traditionally strongest quarter.” Gartner report also mentioned that Android continued to increase its market share, up 19.9 per cent points in the third quarter of 2012. Although RIM lost market share, it climbed to the No 3 position as Symbian is nearing the end of its lifecycle.
Gartner analysts expect that with the launch of iPhone 5 iOS’s share will grow strongly in the fourth quarter of 2012 because users held on to their replacements in many markets ahead of the iPhone 5 wider roll out. Windows Phone's share weakened quarter-on-quarter as the Windows Phone 8 launch dampened demand of Windows Phone 7 devices.
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