Some very interesting things happened with 10 of the world’s biggest smartphone makers in Q1 2011. The likes of Apple, Nokia, RIM and Samsung have performed in ways we couldn’t have imagined just three or four years ago. And now that the quarter is over and each of the companies have all the numbers in, we can see where each is heading with respect to each other.
ABI Research’s Michael Morgan gives a rundown of the figures and a bit of insight into the manufacturer’s respective strategies.
Some key takeaways for Apple is that it “continues to be the one handset OEM that can do no wrong. In Q1, Apple defied all seasonality and supply chain concerns to deliver a sequential growth of 15 percent or 2.8 million additional iPhones.” It sounds a bit bullish, but with Apple’s consistent performance every single quarter – it manages to outperform forecasts and expectations every time – how can one not feel that way about the company and the iPhone?
Things aren’t as pretty for Nokia: “Nokia handset shipments sequentially decreased 12 percent Q1 while the overall market decreased 13.9 percent sequentially. As a result, Nokia’s market inched up to 32.7 percent in the first quarter. The world’s largest handset OEM has been losing market share in emerging markets where the low-cost handsets that make up 77 percent of its shipments are facing competition from white label OEMs and top ten companies such as Huawei, ZTE and TCL.”
And for RIM? Well, it shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone: “Research In Motion has faced increasing public scrutiny regarding its ability to compete, an aging line of smartphones, and its recent release of the Playbook media tablet.” The BlackBerry maker kept exclaiming that “Amateur hour is over” in its PlayBook ads, yet key missing features and a lack of serious tablet applications have hurt the new device, and a bit of RIM’s reputation.
For more on how the big boys of the mobile space performed during the first quarter of 2011, see the link below.
[Via: FierceWireless]