Gartner has released its report on mobile handset sales for the first quarter of 2013 and as expected Android pretty much owns the smartphone market with Samsung being the biggest player on the field.
According to the research firm sales of mobile handsets have only risen by a tiny amount of 0.7% up to 425 million devices sold compared to the same time last year. But smartphones sales have grown by 63 million units equating to almost half of all the handsets sold during this past quarter.
Android accounts for almost 75% of those total smartphone sales which is a huge jump of nearly 20% when compared to the same time last year. Apple and iOS have lost marketshare due to slower growth this past quarter, the Cupertino company only accounts for 18% now. Blackberry, seen here as RIM, has also lost marketshare ending up with less than half of what they had last year, showing that their recently launched BB10 OS hasn"t made a significant splash in the market yet. Microsoft is showing good growth doubling their share, but that still only account for 3% of the total sales; they have a very long way to go.
When it comes to manufacturers Samsung is the undisputed king. Though the company doesn"t disclose total sales numbers Gartner estimates they have sold around 100 million units meaning Samsung accounts for 31% of total smartphone sales during this period. Nokia comes in at number two with a total of 63 million units sold, but that number has been quickly declining in recent quarters and it"s down nearly 20 million compared to the same time last year. Nokia has recently been trying to recapture that lost marketshare with the newly launched Lumia 520, the Verzion only Lumia 928 and this mornings announced Lumia 925. Finally, Apple comes in third place accounting for 9% of total sales up 1.2 percentage points.
Gartner also points out that Asia is world"s fastest growing market, with China being the biggest single market. The Asia/Pacific region accounts for over 50% of total handset sales during this past quarter, and there are no signs of the market slowing down anytime soon.
Source: Gartner | Images via TechCrunch