Mobile phone shipments boosted by smartphones and white-box sales

Research firm Gartner has released bullish mobile phone sales figures for the third quarter, claiming that global sales rose 35 percent year-on-year to reach 417 million units. The quarter represented the third consecutive double-digit increase in sales year-on-year, the firm said. Sales were boosted by a 96 percent increase in smartphone sales, which hit 81 million and accounted for 19.3 percent of the overall total. Gartner’s numbers were more bullish than data released recently by rival research firm Strategy Analytics, which reported unit sales of 327 million in Q3, up just 13 percent year-on-year. According to the Gartner figures, the top three mobile device vendors – Nokia, Samsung and LG – remained in the same positions from a year ago, albeit with reduced market share. However, like Strategy Analytics, Gartner said that the third quarter also saw Apple rise into the top five for the first time, surpassing RIM for fourth place.

In addition to strong growth of smartphone sales in mature markets, Gartner also pointed to increasing sales of so-called ‘white-box’ products in some emerging regions. “In the third quarter, white-box manufacturers continued to expand their reach outside of China into markets such as India, Russia, Africa and Latin America,” said Carolina Milanesi, research vice-president at Gartner. “We firmly believe this phenomenon will not be short-lived as we still see a continued need for non-3G devices.” The rise of the white-box manufacturers from Asia was largely responsible for the rise of the ‘others’ section in the study, which, as a proportion of overall sales, doubled its market share from a year ago to 33 percent.

Source: Gartner (November 2010)