IDC reports a mobile market first for Q1 2013-- smartphones beat feature phones in global shipment totals, making 51.6% (or 216.2 million units) of total shipments for the quarter.
Overall the global mobile market shows 4% Y-o-Y growth in a seasonally slow Q1 2013, with shipments reaching 418.6m units-- up from 402.4m units in Q1 2012 but down from 483.2m in Q4 2012.
"Phone users want computers in their pockets." IDC states. "The days where phones are used primarily to make phone calls and send text messages are quickly fading away... The balance of smartphone power has shifted to phone makers that are most dependent on smartphones."
Aside from the consumer preference shifs, an other industry trend IDC points out is Chinese smartphone makers taking the spotlight-- the likes of Huawei, ZTE, Lenovo and Coolpad are making "significant" strides in Android smartphones, leaving former leaders (Nokia, BlackBerry, HTC) in their dust.
However one vendor continues to rule them all, be it smartphones or an entire industry-- Samsung, whose Q1 2013 smartphone shipments (70.7m units) beat those of the next four vendors... combined. Thanks to the Galaxy S range, Samsung smartphone Q1 market share reaches 32.7% while it rules over 27.5% of the overall mobile market.
Apple follows in smartphones with 17.3% market share and shipments reaching 37.4m units (a new Q1 high according to IDC) with 6.6% Y-o-Y growth. LG follows as it returns to the smartphone Top 5 after a 2 quarter absence, with a diverse portfolio (including the L series, Nexus 4 and Optimus G) driving record-high shipments of 10.3m units.
Chinese vendors take the next two smartphone ranking places-- Huawei and ZTE, whose presence outside of Asia/Pacific shows slow yet steady growth.
When it comes to the overall mobile market Nokia follows Samsung with 14.8% market share, if with a -25.1% Y-o-Y decline on shipments reaching 61.9m units. In 3rd, 4th and 5th places are Apple, LG and ZTE, further cementing smartphone domination on the industry.
