A Canalys report found that European smartphone shipments grew 28 percent compared to the same quarter last year. In all, some 12.6 million smartphones were shipped in Q2 2008. Canalys estimates that smartphones make up about 13 percent of all mobile phone shipments. Customer demand for high-end features such as GPS and Wi-Fi drove the demand.
Nokia retained its first position with a 1.6 percent growth quarter over quarter to 8.9 million units shipped. Topping out the top five were RIM (64.8 percent growth and just over 900,000 units shipped), HTC (118.7 percent growth and just under 900,000 units shipped), Motorola (221.8 percent growth and just over 430,000 units shipped)and Samsung (232 percent growth and just over 400,000 units shipped).
Canalys expects that Apple could appear on this list in Q3, following the release of the iPhone 3G.
In the United States, mobile phone sales reached 28 million units in Q2 2008, a 13 percent decrease over the same quarter a year ago. This marks the third quarter in a row with a year-over-year decline. But the news was not all gloomy: The average cell phone price rose to USD$84 as consumers looked for more features.
As in Europe, smartphones sales rose (about 9 percent over the same quarter last year). Devices with QWERTY keyboards saw the greatest rise and now accounting for about 28 percent of all handsets sold.
As reported earlier by Strategy Analytics, Motorola retained its market share lead but fell to 21 percent, a single percentage point over Samsung and LG. Nokia followed with 9 percent and RIM completed the top five with a 7 percent marketshare.