Market research firm IDC yesterday published the latest edition of its Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, revealing that smartphone shipments set a new world record by growing 38.8% year over year. They hit a total of 258.4 million units, up 9.0% over the previous record high of 237.0 million set in the previous quarter.
The overall mobile phone market also grew both year-over-year and over the previous quarter. Total mobile phone shipments (including smartphones) reached 467.9 million units.
“The third quarter was up substantially over the previous quarter, which was also a record quarter for shipments, showing the real momentum of the smartphone market,” said Ryan Reith, Program Director with IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker. “Price points have declined significantly, driven largely by low-cost Android solutions. This has helped China to become one of the fastest growing smartphone markets in the world, accounting for more than one third of all shipments last quarter. We expect this trend to continue going forward.”
As for the top smartphone vendors, Samsung and Apple continue to dominate the market, taking nearly half of the market share. Huawei, Lenovo and LG complete the top three. All five showed impressive year-over-year shipment growth with Apple’s 25.70% growth being the lowest and Lenovo’s 77.60% the highest.
| Top Five Smartphone Vendors, Shipments, and Market Share, Q3 2013 (Units in Millions) | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vendor | 3Q13 Unit Shipments | 3Q13 Market Share | 3Q12 Unit Shipments | 3Q12 Market Share | Year-over-year Change |
| Samsung | 81.2 | 0.314 | 57.8 | 0.31 | 0.405 |
| Apple | 33.8 | 0.131 | 26.9 | 0.144 | 0.257 |
| Huawei | 12.5 | 0.048 | 7.1 | 0.038 | 0.765 |
| Lenovo | 12.3 | 0.047 | 6.9 | 0.037 | 0.776 |
| LG | 12 | 0.046 | 7 | 0.038 | 0.714 |
| Others | 106.6 | 0.413 | 80.5 | 0.432 | 0.324 |
| Total | 258.4 | 1 | 186.2 | 1 | 0.388 |
Looking more closely at the table, you realize how dominant Samsung is. It shipped more units than the next four vendors combined! As IDC points out though, while its flagship devices garner the most attention, it is its wide range of mass-market smartphones that account for the greater portion of shipments.
Source : IDC