Nokia Is the Top Handset Maker in Second Quarter [STUDY]

[Waqas 48]

Nokia sold more handsets than anyone else in the second quarter, but will likely lose the top slot in Q3, according to a report from Gartner.

Nokia sold 97.9 million units in the quarter, giving the handset maker a 22.8% share, in units. That was down 111.5 million units and a 30.3% share in Q2 2010. The report, however, notes that Nokia’s top position is not a reflection of successful new product introductions, but of retailers in Europe and China clearing out old Nokia inventory by cutting prices.

“The sales efforts of the channel, combined with Nokia’s greater concentration in retail and distributors’ sales, saw Nokia destock more than 9 million units overall and 5 million smartphones, helping it hold on to its position as the leading smartphone manufacturer by volume,†said Roberta Cozza, principal research analyst at Gartner, in a statement. “However, we will not see a repeat of this performance in the third quarter of 2011, as Nokia’s channel is pretty lean.â€

On the other hand, Samsung‘s number two ranking, with 69.8 million units and a share of 16.3% came as the company successfully migrated its product line to higher-end smartphones, according to the report. Samsung’s decline from a 17.8% came largely because the company stop selling so many lower-end devices.

Elsewhere, the report noted strong growth for Android, which now has 43.4% of the global market for smartphone platforms, in units compared to 17.2% in Q2 2010. Nokia’s Symbian OS fell to a 22.1% share from 40.9% over that time, while Apple’s iOS had 18.2% compared to 14.1%.

Overall sales of mobile phones also jumped 16.5% to 428.7 million units for Q2 2011 versus the same period in 2010.

Image courtesy of Nokia

More About: android, apple, Gartner, iphone, Nokia, samsung, Symbian

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