The numbers are in, and they're either awesome or ugly. Your perspective depends on which stocks you own. If you've invested in either Nokia (NYSE: NOK) or Research In Motion (Nasdaq: RIMM), you have my sympathies. If you've invested in Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL), Google (Nasdaq: GOOG), Samsung, or HTC, congratulations. You're looking particularly handsome today.
For the first time since the introduction of the iPhone in 2007, Apple leads IDC's quarterly smartphone market-share tracker.
|
Vendor |
Q2 2011 Shipments |
Q2 2011 Market Share |
Q2 2010 Shipments |
Q2 2010 Market Share |
Change* |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apple | 20.3 mil. | 19.1% | 8.4 mil. | 13.0% | 141.7% |
| Samsung | 17.3 mil. | 16.2% | 3.6 mil. | 5.6% | 380.6% |
| Nokia | 16.7 mil. | 15.7% | 24.0 mil. | 37.3% | (30.4%) |
| Research In Motion | 12.4 mil. | 11.6% | 11.2 mil. | 17.4% | 10.7% |
| HTC | 11.7 mil. | 11.0% | 4.4 mil. | 6.8% | 165.9% |
| Others | 28.1 mil. | 26.4% | 12.8 mil. | 19.9% | 119.5% |
| Total | 106.5 mil. | 100.0% | 64.4% | 100.0% | 65.4% |
Source: IDC.
*Year over year, in shipments.
Looks like this headline was more prescient than I ever could have imagined. (Or intended, frankly.) Apple is one of only three vendors to outgrow the overall market, with the other two -- Samsung and HTC -- being Android licensees.
Of the others, I suspect this hurts Nokia most. The one-time Finnish phenom has yielded more than 20 percentage points of smartphone market share over the past year, lending context to last month's awful earnings report. The data also makes CEO Stephen Elop look smart in partnering with his old employer, Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT), to bring Windows to Nokia handsets -- although, to be fair, some of Nokia's drop is due to the uncertainty of selling Symbian models when the company is looking to abandon the platform.
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