[Jonesy1966]

As per Mobilesyrup:

IDC: Samsung, Apple and RIM are the top 3 smartphone manufacturers in Q3, Nokia slips out of top 5 | MobileSyrup.com

IDC has released their quarterly report of the mobile phone market. They state that in Q3 2012 the industry grew 2.4% over last year with shipments totalling 444.5 million. Smartphone shipments made up 179.7 million of the total, increasing 45.3% over last year (123.7 million).

Samsung remained the leader in Q3, shipping 105.4 million devices, representing a commanding 23.7% market share. Nokia was second, but falling fast, with 82.9 million handsets and capturing 18.7% market share. Apple took third place with 6.1% market share and shipped 26.9 million iPhones. LG and ZTE followed in 4th and 5th spot.

Shifting to specifically smartphones is a different story. Samsung and Apple dominated this arena with 31.3% and 15.0% market share respectively. Surprisingly it�s RIM that captured 3rd place, taking over from Nokia�s position and their trailing Lumai Windows Phone 8 devices. RIM hasn�t released a new smartphone in months, but managed to ship 7.7 million BlackBerry smartphones, earning 4.3% market share. However, it�s important to note that even capturing a respectable 3rd place, RIM has experienced a massive 34.7% drop in market share when compared to last year. With BlackBerry 10 coming up in Q1 2013 it�ll be interesting to see how they perform.

Kevin Restivo of IDC stated �Nokia�s share losses have meant gains for competitors. The company�s transition away from Symbian-powered smartphones to ones shipped with Windows Phone has left ample opportunity for rivals to steal share away from Nokia over the past 18 months. However, the smartphone market is still relatively nascent, which means there�s room for multiple vendors and operating systems to flourish, including Nokia.�/:

[Cesare21]

These are challenging times for both RIM and Nokia. It just depends on how well these companies handle these times.

[kbz1960]

He must be one of the few who thinks there is plenty of room for more than 3 OSes I agree.

[Jonesy1966]

I've been bouncing around the forums today and many people are surprised to see Nokia fall out of the top 5 after all the money & effort they've spent re-establishing their brand and also that of WP. Not only that but also how little effort RIM has spent to get back into the number 3 spot, knowing that not much business will come their way between now and when BB10 launches. From all the positive noise that's surrounded Nokia over the last 18 months and the level of negativity that's been aimed at RIM for the same period of time, to me these results are incredibly surprising as well as pleasing.

[RubberChicken76]

He must be one of the few who thinks there is plenty of room for more than 3 OSes I agree.

There are more than 3 OSes with a sizeable base now. I think that's a construct of the press.

[dragonx6]

I believe nokia will take back that spot with the windows 8 phones for the quarter but next quarter when "the ten" comes out it will be a good battle for that spot. I do believe rim can come out on top against nokia.

[kbz1960]

There are more than 3 OSes with a sizeable base now. I think that's a construct of the press.

Yes but everything I see lately is blogs saying there is no room for more than 3 mobile OSes

[cgk]

You aren't comparing like with like - RIM have achieved volume by selling at cost or a slight loss, Nokia has unsuccessfully tried to rebuild its margins - the true point where we can compare the two is when RIM tries to sell a new OS at decent margins - volume by giving phones away is not a difficult challenge, the challenge is keeping the company going if they can't reverse the trend.

I've been bouncing around the forums today and many people are surprised to see Nokia fall out of the top 5 after all the money & effort they've spent re-establishing their brand and also that of WP. Not only that but also how little effort RIM has spent to get back into the number 3 spot, knowing that not much business will come their way between now and when BB10 launches. From all the positive noise that's surrounded Nokia over the last 18 months and the level of negativity that's been aimed at RIM for the same period of time, to me these results are incredibly surprising as well as pleasing.

Sent from my Lumia 800 using Board Express

[cgk]

There are more than 3 OSes with a sizeable base now. I think that's a construct of the press.

Who cares how many OSes if only two players make profits and the rest are slowly going broke? That is why share and raw volume numbers only provide half a picture.
Sent from my Lumia 800 using Board Express

[Cesare21]

I've been bouncing around the forums today and many people are surprised to see Nokia fall out of the top 5 after all the money & effort they've spent re-establishing their brand and also that of WP. Not only that but also how little effort RIM has spent to get back into the number 3 spot, knowing that not much business will come their way between now and when BB10 launches. From all the positive noise that's surrounded Nokia over the last 18 months and the level of negativity that's been aimed at RIM for the same period of time, to me these results are incredibly surprising as well as pleasing.

I'm kinda surprised too. I think the WP devices need more than just an OS upgrade to appeal to more people. I recall a friend buying a Lumia and the other guy was like "dude, it's a windows phone. They don't make good phones". There might be perception problem with Nokia (for not making good smartphones) as well as RIM (they make old smartphones) right now with the general population. The company that will break away from their past and their legacy faster will turn around their fortunes faster.

[BlackStormRising]

No guarantee the top 2 will maintain their profit margins for much longer either.

Sent from my BlackBerry 9790 using Tapatalk

[Jonesy1966]

You aren't comparing like with like - RIM have achieved volume by selling at cost or a slight loss, Nokia has unsuccessfully tried to rebuild its margins - the true point where we can compare the two is when RIM tries to sell a new OS at decent margins - volume by giving phones away is not a difficult challenge, the challenge is keeping the company going if they can't reverse the trend.


Sent from my Lumia 800 using Board Express

Not wanting to get into an argument about this, this is a serious question/coment. Where I live, the 9900, 9790, 9360 and 9320 are all selling for their retail prices, so I'm not sure how you mean RIM is discounting their hardware aggressively. The only heavily discounted phone I've seen recently has been the 9300. Admittedly, I've really not watched the pricing on the touchscreen phones as they're not what turns my crank. I travel a lot too, mostly here in Canada but also the UK, in the UK BlackBerrys are holding their value too. Could you shed some light on what you mean? Cheers.

[cgk]

I'm kinda surprised too. I think the WP devices need more than just an OS upgrade to appeal to more people. I recall a friend buying a Lumia and the other guy was like "dude, it's a windows phone. They don't make good phones". There might be perception problem with Nokia (for not making good smartphones) as well as RIM (they make old smartphones) right now with the general population. The company that will break away from their past and their legacy faster will turn around their fortunes faster.

Isn't that a false dichotomy? The third option is both go under.

No guarantee the top 2 will maintain their profit margins for much longer either.

Sent from my BlackBerry 9790 using Tapatalk

No of course not but both have other revenue streams that means they are going to take longer to go under - no company stays at the top forever but that doesn't mean that yesterdays also-fans get another go at the top.

Not wanting to get into an argument about this, this is a serious question/coment. Where I live, the 9900, 9790, 9360 and 9320 are all selling for their retail prices, so I'm not sure how you mean RIM is discounting their hardware aggressively. The only heavily discounted phone I've seen recently has been the 9300. Admittedly, I've really not watched the pricing on the touchscreen phones as they're not what turns my crank. I travel a lot too, mostly here in Canada but also the UK, in the UK BlackBerrys are holding their value too. Could you shed some light on what you mean? Cheers.

First the cost of the phone is only one element of the overall cost but leaving this aside, we know they are sold at cost (Chris U argued in one crackberry post that they are selling them below cost but I am sure about that) because we know how revenue they generate and how many phones are sold and we have some idea about what the BOM is - I will dig you up some material later but I am on my phone and cutting and pasting from PDFs is a challenge.
Sent from my Lumia 800 using Board Express