29 January 2011

Smartphone shipments grow 75% to record 94 million in Q4

Global smartphone shipments grew 75% year-on-year from 53.9 million units in fourth-quarter 2009 to a record 94 million in fourth-quarter 2010, according to market research firm Strategy Analytics. Apple maintained its small lead over RIM, while Nokia continued to underperform.

“Apple was once again the fastest-growing brand among the big three smartphone players, as it almost doubled volumes on an annual basis, maintained a small quarterly lead over RIM, and captured 17% global marketshare [up from 16.1% a year ago],” says director Tom Kang.

“Smartphone shipments reached 293 million units during full-year 2010, almost doubling from 151 million in 2008 and 175 million in 2009, highlighting the rapid growth of this high-value segment,” adds director Neil Mawston. The big three hardware vendors Nokia, RIM and Apple were less dominant, as their combined global marketshare slipped from 73% in 2009 to 67% in 2010, mostly due to a spike in Android vendors such as Samsung, Motorola, HTC and Sony Ericsson. “Indeed, Android was the star platform of 2010, as it gave iOS4 some much-needed competition and outgrew all major rival operating systems worldwide,” says Mawston.

Nokia became the first ever vendor to ship 100 million smartphones in a single year. However, this could not hide the downturn in its quarterly marketshare, which has slipped from 39% in Q4/2009 to just 30% in Q4/2010 due to increased competition from Apple and several Android vendors.

Blackberry-maker RIM continues to be hampered by a limited presence in the high-growth touchscreen category, and consequently its global smartphone marketshare has fallen from 20% to 16%.

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

See related items:

Handset shipments reach 400 million in Q4/2010

Smartphone sales grow 66% in 2010

Tags: Smartphones

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