IDC report anticipates 4th quarter bump for handset makers
The research firm IDC reported today on third quarter 2010 global smartphone sales and forecast a significant increase in fourth quarter sales for two of the vendors bringing the Microsoft Windows Phone 7 OS to market.
IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker notes that HTC “aims” to sell 9 million smartphones in the fourth quarter, up from 5.8 million in the third quarter, while Samsung aims to sell 10 million units, up from 7.2 million in the third. Now, these won’t all be Phone 7 devices because both companies are expected to continue doing a brisk business selling devices running Google’s Android OS. But a 55 percent increase in quarter-over-quarter sales for HTC and a 39 percent jump for Samsung has got to be sweet music to Steve Ballmer’s ears, music he should be able to hear on his Phone 7’s Zune application.
Another indication of Phone 7’s sales potential is this report of devices being sold out in the U.K. by preorders.
HTC and Samsung’s sales numbers are already on fire with the help of Android, IDC reports. HTC’s third quarter sales of 5.8 million units were an astounding 176.2 percent increase over the 2.1 million units it sold in the third quarter of 2009. But they were loafers compared to Samsung, whose year ago third quarter sales of 1.3 million units skyrocketed 453.8 percent to 7.2 million. IDC probably broke its calculator on that one.
The smartphone market as a whole is similarly robust, though not in the triple digits; IDC reports that for all vendors, sales rose 89.5 percent to 81.1 million units in the third quarter, from 42.8 million in the year ago quarter. IDC attributes the growth to a growing customer preference for smartphones over feature phones, device subsidies, primarily in the U.S. and to the introduction of new devices on upgraded mobile operating systems. RIM introduced the BlackBerry 6.0 operating system on the BlackBerry Torch 9800 during the quarter, while Apple introduced its iOS version 4.0 on the iPhone 4, with the third quarter being the first full quarter in which iPhone 4 was on the market. IDC also notes that Nokia’s Symbian version 3 OS was launched on the Nokia N8 during the quarter.
Nokia still leads in market share globally with 32.7 percent, although Android and Apple are chipping away at its share, which was 38.3 percent a year ago. Also losing share was RIM at 15.3 percent, versus 19.9 percent in 2009. Apple’s share inched up to 17.4 percent from 17.3 percent last year on the strength of a 90.5 percent increase in iPhone sales to 141 million units in the most recent quarter.
“Smartphone makers have the wind behind their sails,” said Kevin Restivo, a senior analyst at IDC, in a prepared statement. In the fourth quarter we’ll be able to see what happens when Microsoft’s sailboat enters the race.
