Nokia Remains World's Top Maker of Smartphones

From X-bit Labs: The worldwide mobile phone market grew 11.3% year over year in the second quarter of 2011, despite a weaker feature phone market, which declined for the first time since Q3 2009. Nokia Corp. remained the top maker of mobile phone despite of major losses of the market of smartphones.

According to the International Data Corp. (IDC), vendors shipped 365.4 million units in Q2 2011 compared to 328.4 million units in the second quarter of 2010. The 11.3% growth was lower than IDC's forecast of 13.3% for the quarter and was also below the 16.8% growth in Q1 2011.

The feature phone market shrank 4% in Q2 2011 when compared to Q2 2010. The decline in shipments was most prominent in economically mature regions, such as the United States, Japan, and Western Europe, as users rapidly transition to smartphones. This was the first decline since Q3 2009 and reflected a combination of conservative spending and continued shift to smartphones. The feature phone forecast isn’t expected to be any rosier in the quarters and years to come. Shipment growth of the device type won’t exceed 1.1% in any year forecasted by IDC.

"The shrinking feature phone market is having the greatest impact on some of the world’s largest suppliers of mobile phones. Stalwarts such as Nokia are losing share in the feature phone category to low-cost suppliers such as Micromax, TCL-Alcatel, and Huawei," said Kevin Restivo, senior research analyst with IDC's worldwide mobile phone tracker.

"For the overall market to grow by double digits year over year, despite the decline in feature phones, is testament to the strength of the global smartphone market. While this is not a new trend – smartphones have been the primary engine of growth for the last several quarters – it does mark something of a transition point, as demonstrated by the growing number and variety of smartphones featured in the vendors' portfolios," said Ramon Llamas, senior research analyst with IDC's mobile phone technology and trends team.

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