SINGAPORE, 10 NOVEMBER 2008 - Worldwide shipments of smart phones during the third quarter of the year hit a new peak of just under 40 million units, according to estimates from research firm Canalys.
While Nokia remained the top-selling vendor, grabbing headlines is the introduction of Apple’s iPhone 3G. The launch helped propel the vendor over RIM and into second place.
“It was expected that Apple would figure among the smart phone leaders this quarter. With that huge initial new product shipment, it was just a question of how high up it would be, and this is impressive,” commented Pete Cunningham, Canalys senior analyst.
Despite RIM being nudged into third place, its growth of more than 80 per cent shouldn’t be overlooked either. “This is also a tremendous performance, especially considering the delays it experienced in rolling out the Blackberry Bold,” said Cunningham. However, together with upcoming devices Storm and Pearl 8220, Cunningham added that it is possible RIM will take back the second spot.
The threat of the touch screen
Canalys has noted that the success of Apple, RIM and fifth-placed HTC has eaten into Nokia’s share of the smart phone market. Year-on-year, its smart phone shipments fell in the third quarter for the first time, while its broad portfolio of models, and the wider audience it attracts, does leave it more exposed to the trends affecting the overall handset market.
“Nokia is also transitioning from some very successful volume drivers, like the N95 and E65, to a number of successors, such as the flagship N96, and shipments of these new models have not yet ramped up,” said Canalys analyst Tim Shepherd.
“And Nokia has taken time to bring a touch screen product to market in the wake of the iPhone’s success, despite having had the experience of producing the Series 90-based 7710 four years ago. Conversely, vendors such as HTC with its Touch Diamond have capitalised on customer demand for this type of product.”
With competition in the smart phone space heating up, the ability to introduce technology and user interface enhancements becomes critical for vendors, said Shepherd.
“You also need to be able to integrate them seamlessly into the device to provide a great total user experience. And that means having sufficient control of development of the operating system, which Apple and RIM clearly have already.” Shepherd pointed out that Nokia’s acquisition of Symbian should help it in this regard.
Motorola, currently holding onto fourth place in smart phones thanks largely to its Linux-based models, recently announced it would move away from using the Symbian OS and focus more on Android.
Battle of the OSes
In terms of operating systems, Canalys noted the decline in shipments of Symbian devices by the key Japanese vendors, and each of the top five hardware vendors largely allied to a different OS.
Despite being overtaken by Apple globally in the quarter, Microsoft has increased its share of the smart phone market year-on-year, helped by the volumes being achieved by vendors such as HTC and Samsung in particular.
Meanwhile, for Google’s new phone OS Android, more vendors and a wider range of device designs will be needed before significant global shipment levels can be achieved.
Canalys expects that 2009 will see Symbian remain on top, but that it will be fairly closely fought between the other major smart phone operating systems, presenting operators and application developers with some challenges around where they deploy their resources.
