Apple’s stronger volumes and higher ARPU helped increase its global smartphone revenue share. Apple’s revenue market share is at 36 percent of the smartphone market in Q2 2011.
HTC and Samsung leapfrogged into second and third place, respectively, in the global smartphone market in Q2 2011, ahead of phone majors RIM and Nokia, according to Infonetics Research.
The significant change in smart phone ranking has already reflected in HTC’s financials. Recently, HTC announced August revenue of NT$45.322 billion, with an increase of 87.44 percent from August 2010. Together from January to August, the firm’s sales totaled NT$318.9 billion, a rise of 115.97 percent from the same period last year.
HTC has predicted that its third quarter sales would be NT$137 billion. With HTC’s July and August sales totaling NT$90.4 billion, reaching the Q3 target would require the firm to make NT$47 billion in sales for September.
The industry is expecting that the smart phone company from Taiwan will unveil various new handset models in the fourth quarter.
Investment firm Goldman Sachs predicted that HTC’s Q4 shipments would stay the same as Q3, while sales may decline 1 percent from the third quarter, due to a weakening European market and fiercer competition.
According to Infonetics Research, the number of mobile broadband-enabled tablets (e.g., Apple iPad, Motorola Xoom, BlackBerry PlayBook, HP TouchPad, etc.) sold in the second quarter versus the first quarter jumped 80 percent, with 14 million tablets sold worldwide in Q2 2011.
The clear synergy between smartphones and tablets, with their shared touchscreen features and common application environments, make them by far the hottest segments of the mobile broadband device market. Just as iPhone users are more likely to buy an iPad as their tablet, so too are Android users more likely to buy Android-based tablets. It is increasingly important for vendors to have a strong portfolio in both market segments to leverage this synergy,” advises Richard Webb, directing analyst for microwave and small cells, Infonetics Research.
A total of $31.4 billion was spent on smartphones in Q2 2011, down 1.4 percent from the previous quarter despite unit shipments being up about 2 percent, indicating unit-price erosion impeded revenue growth.
Infonetics expects global smartphone revenue to grow 31 percent in 2011 over 2010, to $117 billion.
Combined across all vendors, Android continues to be the #1 smartphone operating system (OS) in the world, used in nearly half of all smartphones shipped worldwide.
By Baburajan K
editor@telecomlead.com
