Neil Hughes
While Apple increased its iPhone sales year over year, its share of the global smartphone market shrank to 18.2 percent in the first quarter, according to data from Gartner.
Apple fell from its 22.5 percent share a year ago, the new figures released on Tuesday show. Meanwhile, Apple's chief rival Samsung increased its market share from 27.6 percent a year ago to 30.8 percent in the first quarter of 2013.
In fact, Apple was the only company among the top five smartphone vendors to see its share shrink. Third-place LG Electronics grew from 3.4 percent in 2012 to 4.8 percent in 2013, while Huawei Technologies grew to 4.4 percent, and ZTE took a 3.8 percent share.
Success seen by Android handset makers helped Google's mobile platform take a commanding 74.4 percent lion's share of the smartphone market. The iPhone is the only smartphone on which Apple's iOS is available, and so its second-place platform share of 18.2 percent was identical to its hardware market share.
"Apple is faced with the challenge of being increasingly dependent on the replacement market as its addressable market is capped," said Anshul Gupta, principal research analyst at Gartner. "The next two quarters will also be challenging, as there are no new products are expected to be coming before the third quarter of 2013."
In all, global smartphone sales grew from 147 million a year ago to 210 million in the first quarter of 2013. Smartphones accounted for 49.3 percent of all mobile phone sales worldwide, up from 34.8 percent in the first quarter of 2012.
“Feature phones users across the world are either finding their existing phones good enough or are waiting for smartphones prices to drop further, either way the prospect of longer replacement cycles is certainly not a good news for both vendors and carriers looking to move users forward,†Gupta said.
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98 Comments
Just curious where Gartner gets their data from and how they know what the smartphone market is so they can assign share percentages? What company besides Apple provides quarterly shipment data?
I am so tired of these analysis, they are all cutting data to tell some story which they have no clue about. So now Apple will only sell to previous apple user since all others are too cheap or too stupid to buy an apple product.
Just curious where Gartner gets their data from and how they know what the smartphone market is so they can assign share percentages? What company besides Apple provides quarterly shipment data?
of course, when we are not happy with the numbers lets question the source...
Fact is Apple is painting itseft into a niche corner just like it did in the 80's. This year is pretty much last chance for Apple to come out with multiple iphone models that adress the entire market.
Apple was able to slow down its tablet market share freefall with the ipad mini, its needs to move asap on the phone side.
Fact is Apple is painting itseft into a niche corner just like it did in the 80's. This is year is pretty much last chance for Apple to come out with multiple iphone models that adress the entire market.
And the niche market is worth more than all others combined. It isn't market share driving profits. It is specialty. Think Neiman Marcus, Daimler-Benz, Chanel, LHMV and a few others. When executed well, operating in niche markets is very successful. There is not always a reason to be the largest, especially if you prevent any product line dependencies (I am not saying production lines) with other companies.
[quote name="herbapou" url="/t/157512/apple-fell-to-18-share-of-smartphone-sales-in-q1-gartner-says#post_2326432"]of course, when we are not happy with the numbers lets question the source... Fact is Apple is painting itseft into a niche corner just like it did in the 80's. This is year is pretty much last chance for Apple to come out with multiple iphone models that adress the entire market. Apple was Able to slow down its tablet market share freefall with the ipad mini, its needs to move asap on the phone side. [/quote]excuse me? This has nothing to do with whether I'm happy with the numbers. If Gartner said Apple had 75% market share I'd still question where they got their numbers from since no one outside Apple provides sales/shipment figures. And how many times before have we heard its doom and gloom for Apple if they don't do X or Y. Before the iPad came out all the pundits an tech blog writers said Apple had to do a netbook, had to do a cheap laptop. They did the iPad instead. I don't think Apple's fortunes lie in a cheap phone for China and a 5" phone for geeks. I seriously hope they're working on bigger things than that.