News
COMMENT: Changing times in the handset world
ME staff Nov 7 2008, 5:49pm
The world of mobile handsets is changing. Perhaps a little bit faster than any of us might have thought.
Fresh figures out this week showed just how intense competition has become, particularly when it comes to smartphones.
Looking at the overall market there is little question that the current economic malaise is being felt by the mobile industry in a tangible way.
Strategy Analytics said that five per cent year-on-year shipment growth in 3Q08 was the market's weakest quarterly performance since 2002.
The company pegged the industry at 303 million handsets sold during the period, with Nokia holding onto first place with a 38.9 per cent market share and Apple leapfrogging RIM to become the sixth-largest handset maker.
Then came smartphone numbers from Canalys, which said shipments of such devices had risen by 28 per cent in Q3 to 39.9 million units.
As you would expect, here too Apple had managed to steal a march on RIM, taking 17 per cent of shipments (up from 3.6 per cent in 3Q08). What's interesting is that both Apple and RIM (which increased its own share from 10.6 to 15.2 per cent) have their eyes on each other's core customer base.
Canalys said the gains made by those two ate straight into Nokia's slice of the smartphone pie, which fell quite noticeably from a rock solid 51.4 per cent to 38.9 per cent.
Looking forward, Informa said the macro industry conditions will be characterised by a slowing (perhaps even a contraction) in developed markets into the next decade, with BRIC plus Africa driving overall handset sales CAGR to 6.8 per cent between 2007 and 2013.
It's clear that there are lots of dynamics in the market right now. To say that the entrance of Google and Apple and the rise of the 'open' mobile OS have been disruptive would be understating the point. And that's not even to touch on the travails of Motorola and Sony Ericsson.
It's also clear that smartphones and emerging markets will be the key battlegrounds. It's no coincidence that on the same day Nokia confirmed more details of its restructuring, it also unveiled a multimedia device and content strategy for the developing world.
