Smartphone Sales Up, General Mobile Market Sales Down
By Michelle Amodio, TMCnet Contributor
Market intelligence from Gartner (News 
- Alert) today reports that overall mobile sales have had a less-than-stellar record, but categorically speaking, smartphones did okay.
The leader of the pack? Android (News - Alert) takes the top spot, according to Gartner, coming in at 43.4 percent of mobile market share in Q2 2011 compared to 17.2 in Q2 2010, a significant jump.
As for worldwide sales, mobile devices totaled 428.7 million units in the second quarter of 2011, a 16.5 percent increase from the second quarter of 2010, according to Gartner, Inc. Smartphones were up to 74 percent, an increase by 17 percent compared to this quarter last year.
“Smartphone sales continued to rise at the expense of feature phones,” said Roberta Cozza, principal research analyst at Gartner in a press release. “Consumers in mature markets are choosing entry-level and midrange Android smartphones over feature phones, partly due to carriers’ and manufacturers’ promotions." However, replacement sales in Western Europe showed signs of fatigue as smartphone sales declined quarter-on-quarter.
Fears that the Japanese quake would cause component shortages created a smartphone inventory build-up in the channel in the last quarter, which was not totally cleared out as demand across Western Europe showed signs of slowing down.
The latest Q2 analysis of the smartphone market from Gartner dictates that the inventory issue combined with the fragile state of the economy means both manufacturers and distributors are likely to remain cautious about building up stocks in the near future.
"We expect manufacturers and distributors to remain cautious about raising their stock levels in the second half of 2011, following the recent uncertainty on the world financial markets," said Annette Zimmermann, principal research analyst at Gartner.
According to Gartner, Google (News - Alert) and Apple are the clear winners in the smartphone industry. The combined share of iOS and Android in the smartphone operating system market doubled to nearly 62 percent in the second quarter of 2011, up from just over 31 percent in the corresponding period of 2010.
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Michelle Amodio is a TMCnet contributor. She has helped promote companies and groups in all industries, from technology to banking to professional roller derby. She holds a bachelor's degree in Writing from Endicott College and currently works in marketing, journalism, and public relations as a freelancer.
Edited by Rich Steeves
