Gartner have released their latest report into the smartphone market, with devices compared according to manufacturer and operating system. Apple, Samsung and HTC reported the strongest results in an increasingly smartphone-dominated market, while Windows Phone 7 continues to lose out to iOS and Android in the operating system wars
. Nokia held on to the number one position in terms of sales, although they lost 5.5 percent market share. While the recent deal with Microsoft may boost Nokia, their slowly-moving Windows Phone 7 devices are unlikely to be ready this year. In contrast, while Samsung also lost 2 percent of their market, they have more momentum with a number of new additions to the Galaxy line.
The entire smartphone category was the winner overall however, as more and more consumers move away from regular handsets. “Smartphones accounted for 23.6 percent of overall sales in the first quarter of 2011, an increase of 85 percent year-on-year,” said Roberta Cozza, principal research analyst at Gartner.
“This share could have been even higher, but manufacturers announced a number of high-profile devices during the first quarter of 2011 that would not ship until the second quarter of 2011. We believe some consumers delayed their purchases to wait for these models.” said Cozza.
In terms of operating systems, Android and iOS continued to dominate, although with Symbian coming to an end, there is more room to move than ever before. Android went up from 9.6 percent to a massive 36 percent of market share in one year alone, and there is no sign of this dominance dying off any time soon.
While Nokia’s strategic alliance with Microsoft on Windows Phone 7 will influence future developments, the Microsoft OS only saw modest success. With Android in top position, Symbian in second, and Apple’s iOS taking the third spot, RIM and Microsoft rounded out the top five with 12.9 percent and 3.6 percent respectively.
