IDC: Nokia phone shipments decline, others on the rise

Another analyst firm, IDC, put out a report detailing the phone market in Q3 this year. While it has slightly different numbers than Strategy Analytics, the picture it paints is pretty much the same..

IDC confirms that smartphone shipments have broken the quarter billion mark, breaking the previous record, which was set in Q2 2012. Phone shipments as a whole (including feature phones) have reached 467.9 million, a modest 5.7% year on year growth.

The smartphone race is heating up – Android is the OS that drives the adoption of low-cost smartphones. They are especially popular in China (amongst consumers and vendors alike) and the country was the final destination of over one third of the worldwide smartphone shipments.

Samsung has a controlling share – 31.5% with 81.2 million units shipped (lower than what Strategy Analytics reports). The company also shipped more than the other vendors in the Top 5 combined.

However, the vendors in the Top 5 accounted for only 58.7% of total smartphones shipments – the ones outside the Top 5 shipped 41.3% this quarter, up from 33.7% in Q3 last year.

Top Five Smartphone Vendors, Shipments, and Market Share, Q3 2013 (Units in Millions)

Vendor	3Q13 Unit Shipments	3Q13 Market Share	3Q12 Unit Shipments	3Q12 Market Share	Year-over-year Change
Samsung	81.2	31.4%	57.8	31.0%	40.5%
Apple	33.8	13.1%	26.9	14.4%	25.7%
Huawei	12.5	4.8%	7.1	3.8%	76.5%
Lenovo	12.3	4.7%	6.9	3.7%	77.6%
LG	12.0	4.6%	7.0	3.8%	71.4%
Others	106.6	41.3%	62.8	33.7%	69.8%
Total	258.4	100.0%	186.2	100.0%	38.8%

Apple's position worsened a bit, but again numbers differ slightly between analytic companies.

For example, IDC has LG trailing both Huawei and Lenovo, while Strategy Analytics had LG splitting the two. Coolpad and ZTE, two other Chinese makers, are close behind LG.

Smartphones aside, all companies saw small to good gains in total phone shipments (feature phones plus smartphones), except for Nokia, which tumbled 22% year on year. Nokia's total market share in Q3 this year is enough to position it in second place, but well behind Samsung.

Top Five Total Mobile Phone Vendors, Shipments, and Market Share, 2013 Q3 (Units in Millions)

Vendor	3Q13 Unit Shipments	3Q13 Market Share	3Q12 Unit Shipments	3Q12 Market Share	Year-over-year Change
Samsung	115.4	24.7%	103.8	23.4%	11.2%
Nokia	64.6	13.8%	82.9	18.7%	-22.1%
Apple	33.8	7.2%	26.9	6.1%	25.7%
LG	16.8	3.6%	14.4	3.3%	16.7%
Huawei	14.6	3.1%	11.2	2.5%	30.4%
Others	222.7	47.6%	203.5	46.0%	9.4%
Total	467.9	100.0%	442.7	100.0%	5.7%

Keep in mind that Nokia shipped around 8.8 million Lumia smartphones out of the total 64.6 million phone shipments, while Samsung shipped almost twice as many smartphones as it did feature phones. Samsung shipped more smartphones that any other company shipped phones in general.

LG is another company that relies on its feature phone business to give it a push – it helps it edge Lenovo and Huawei in terms of total units shipped.

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