Apple surprises while Nokia stays in command of smart phones

^{Symbian still has 2/3 of the operating system market} Apple surprises while Nokia stays in command of smart phones

5 Feb 2008 at 14:19 GMT Timo Poropudas

While Apple provided a unexpected strength, Nokia remained global market leader, shipping 60.5 million smart phones last year, shows the data from Canalys. RIM shipments grew 112% year-on-year to 12.2 million, strengthening its second place position.

Symbian operating systems leads with 67% share, followed by Microsoft on 13%, with RIM on 10%.

Apple’s entry into this market in 2007 with the iPhone sparked a lot of media attention and speculation about how much it could disrupt the status quo and take share away from companies such as Nokia, RIM, Palm and Motorola.

“When you consider that it launched part way through the year, with limited operator and country coverage, and essentially just one product, Apple has shown very clearly that it can make a difference and has sent a wakeup call to the market leaders,” said Pete Cunningham, Canalys senior analyst.

“What it must demonstrate now is that it can build a sustainable business in the converged device space, expanding its coverage and product portfolio. It will also need to ensure that the exclusive relationships that got it so far so quickly do not prove to be a limit on what it can achieve. Apple’s innovation in its mobile phone user interface has prompted a lot of design activity among competitors. We saw the beginnings of that in 2007, but we will see a lot more in 2008 as other smart phone vendors try to catch up and then get back in front.”

“Experience shows that a vendor with only one smart phone design, no matter how good that design is, will soon struggle. A broad, continually refreshed portfolio is needed to retain and grow share in this dynamic market. This race is a marathon, but you pretty much have to sprint every lap,” Cunningham said.

The latest market data from analyst firm Canalys shows how much the converged device market (all smart phones and wireless handhelds) has grown over the past year. These, typically high-end, devices represented around 10% of the global mobile phone market by units in 2007, with annual growth of 60% making them one of the fastest growing segments of the technology industry. Year-on-year growth climbed every quarter throughout 2007, to reach a peak of 72% in Q4.

Canalys estimates that Apple took 28% share of the fast growing US converged device market in Q4 2007, behind RIM’s 41%, but a long way ahead of third placed Palm on 9%. This was also enough to put Apple ahead of all Windows Mobile device vendors combined, whose share was 21% in the quarter according to Canalys figures. In EMEA, where the iPhone officially launched part way through the quarter in only three countries, Apple took fifth spot behind Nokia, RIM, HTC and Motorola, but ahead of several established smart phone providers such as Sony Ericsson, Samsung and Palm.

Worldwide converged smart mobile device market shares Q4 2007, Q4 2006
Vendor	Q4 2007 shipments	% share	Q4 2006 shipments	% share	Growth Q4'07/Q4'06
Nokia	18,802,480	52.9%	11,114,630	53.8%	69.2%
RIM	4,046,860	11.4%	1,829,260	8.9%	121.2%
Apple	2,320,840	6.5%	-	0.0%	NA
Motorola	2,301,260	6.5%	1,463,090	7.1%	57.3%
Others	8,050,920	22.7%	6,260,220	30.3%	28.6%
Total	35,522,360	100.0%	20,667,200	100.0%	71.9%