Canalys has released its worldwide country-level smart phone market data for Q1 and shipments grew 83% to 101.0 million units. For the second straight quarter, Android was head of the pack with 35.7 million units shipped, which increased its share to 35%. Nokia held on to the most units shipped for a manufacturer at 24%, but this was down from 39% from the previous year.
Apple has gained too and is now up to 19% of the marketshare while RIM continued its decline because focus was placed on the Playbook.
Nokia, Apple, RIM, Samsung and HTC were the top five global smart phone vendors, as in Q4 2010. Apple continued to make market share gains, reaching 19%. RIM’s share, however, dropped in Q1, as its portfolio awaited a refresh and the vendor focused on the PlayBook launch. Overtaking Motorola, LG moved into sixth place, with its Optimus series of Android smart phones doing well in all regions.
The number of WP7 devices sold is a topic of great mystery. Microsoft has yet to officially comment on sales and it has been speculated that 674,000 units were sold in 2010. Canalys suggests that, at most, 2.4 million WP7 devices were shipped in Q1 of 2011.
The report (via WMpoweruser) does not specifically state how many WP7 devices were shipped but it does say that "Samsung also shipped nearly 3.5 million bada operating system-based smart phones, outperforming total shipments of Windows Phone devices by more than a million units." Which indicates that, at best, 2.4 million WP7 devices were shipped.
The smartphone market is growing, which shouldn't come as a big surprise. As the mobile devices become more integrated into our lives, easier to use, and harness increased battery life, it is expected that consumers will move away from traditional dumb phones for the increased productivity these new devices offer.
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