Q2 stats show Nokia continues to hold huge lead in global marketshare

Metric firms Strategy Analytics and IDC have both just released their Q2 reports on the cellphone industry. Despite the soft worldwide economy, the handset business is one of continued growth as worldwide shipments rose 14.5% in the period to 317.5 million units. According to IDC, the growth was led by strength in smartphones and by manufacturers outside the top 5. Strategy Analytics saw 2G models do well in emerging markets while more mature markets produced heavy demand for 3G touchscreen phones. With buyers searching out phones with QWERTY keyboards, RIM and Samsung picked up marketshare while Apple held on to a 3% slice of the global pie.

Of the top 5 global handset manufacturers, Nokia led the way for the second quarter shipping 111.1 million phones, up a tad from the prior quarter and a year over year gain of 7.7%. That was good enough for a 36.1% marketshare for the Finnish based firm whose upcoming flagship N8 model running the upgraded Symbian^3 OS, should launch in time for the European holiday season. With a stunning 22% gain in shipments year-over-year, Korean based Samsung was the runner-up, controlling 20.7% of the global handset market. The manufacturer's high-end Android device, the Galaxy S, should start showing up in the data beginning with the next report. That handset will be sold by each of the top four U.S. carriers under different names and with minor changes to each model.

Country mate LG had half the marketshare as Samsung with a 10% figure for Q2. LG had success with some low to mid end Android devices in the States, like the LG Ally, and also did well with its usual line of messaging devices. RIM and Sony Ericsson tied for 4th, each with a 3.6% slice. The former is about to make a very important introduction of its new BlackBerry Torch Slider 9800 which combines a touchscreen with a typically above average QWERTY keyboard that slides out in the portrait position. Slated to launch on AT&T in the States and Vodafone overseas, the 9800 will also feature RIM's new multimedia-centric BlackBerry 6 OS and its new WebKit browser that features tabbed browsing and "pinch-to-zoom" capabilities. The fragmented "Others" category held a rather large 26% piece of the market. That segment includes some well-known firms like Motorola, HTC and Apple plus other manufacturers that might have huge numbers in one country, but are dwarfed by the top 5 when all types of cellphones are included on a global basis.

source: Fierce Wireless (1), (2)