Tag: Symbian

Android Made Up Three-Quarters Of All Smartphone Shipments Last Quarter

Google’s Android OS has grown a lot since its humble beginnings in 2008. Some may have thought that it couldn’t beat iOS, but its spread across multiple devices from multiple OEMs has insured its success. That success can be plainly seen in smartphone shipments during the third quarter.

The latest report from IDC has found that Android was on three out of every four smartphone shipped during the third quarter. In actual numbers, that comes out to 136 million Android phones shipped over last few months. There were only 181.1 million smartphones shipped in the third quarter which puts Android on 75 percent of all smartphone shipments.

Chart: Worldwide Smartphone OS Market Share, 2012Q3Description: IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker provides smart phone and feature phone market data in 60 countries and 8 regions by vendor, device type, air interface, operating systems and platforms, and generation. Over 20 additional technical segmentations are provided. The data is provided four times a year and includes historical and forecast trend analysis. For more information, or to subscribe to the research, please contact Kathy Nagamine at 1-650-350-6423 or knagamine@idc.com.Further detail about this tracker can be found at:http://www.idc.com/tracker/showproductinfo.jsp?prod_id=37Tags: Samsung, Apple, Mobile Phone, Smartphone, IDC, tracker, Q3 2012, mobile phones, 3Q 2012, market share, galaxy, iPhone, Android, iOS, BlackBerry, Symbian, Windows Phone, Linux, 2012Q3, AnniversaryAuthor: IDCcharts powered by iCharts

“Android has been one of the primary growth engines of the smartphone market since it was launched in 2008,” said Ramon Llamas, research manager, Mobile Phones at IDC. “In every year since then, Android has effectively outpaced the market and taken market share from the competition. In addition, the combination of smartphone vendors, mobile operators, and end-users who have embraced Android has driven shipment volumes higher. Even today, more vendors are introducing their first Android-powered smartphones to market.”

So we know that Android is doing incredibly well, but what about the rest? IDC found that Apple shipped 26.9 million iPhones during the quarter which accounted for 14.9 percent of the entire smartphone market. IDC says that the iPhone 5 and lower prices on older models helped Apple reach 57.3 percent growth over third quarter iOS shipments last year.

BlackBerry and Symbian both saw losses across the board with both operating systems only accounting for 7.7 million and 4.1 million smartphone shipments respectively. IDC notes that Symbian in particular may no longer be in the running in 2013 as Symbian smartphone manufacturers are moving to other operating systems like Windows Phone 8 and Android.

Speaking of Windows Phone, Microsoft’s mobile operating system saw the largest growth over the same quarter last year. Windows Phone was on 3.6 million devices sold during the third quarter compared to 1.5 million devices sold during the same time last year. That’s a growth rate of 140 percent. It may be growing, but Windows Phone still only makes up two percent of the entire market share for smartphones.

Regardless of your allegiance, the smartphone is the real winner today. IDC notes that smartphone shipments have increased 46.4 percent over the same time last year. The continued proliferation of the smartphone and other mobile devices may just help put more computers in the hands of those who need them most.

November 2, 2012
Nokia Launches Low-Cost Lumia Phone

Today at Mobile World Congress, Nokia launched the Lumia 610, a low-end Windows phone, roughly a year after announcing that it would discontinue development of it’s proprietary operating system Symbian, in an attempt to boost sales. Still, the company also announced a new Symbian phone, that can shoot 38-megapixel pictures.

The Lumia 610 uses a version of Windows Phone 7 that supports lower memory and processing requirements, and is Nokia has stated the phone would likely retail for $254, and be available in the second quarter of 2012. It’s geared toward younger users, with many preloaded social networking functions.

Nokia also announced its new camera imager that will first be included with its 808 PureView. The PureView technology will be launched on the Symbian OS, but as Nokia phases Symbian out, PureView is planned to be migrated over to Windows Phone 7. PureView accomodates 38-megapixel photos, which would allow users to pinpoint and zoom in on specific areas in images, and likewise print them out in large formats. The imager is adjustable, allowing 5 or 8-megapixel photos to be taken, and the phone features a Carl Zeiss lens.

Nokia opened its news conference at the Mobile World Congress by unveiling three new phones designed for developing countries. “We’re targeting the 3.2 billion people who don’t yet have a phone and 1.2 billion who have a phone but don’t have a data plan yet,” said Mary McDowell, executive vice president of mobile phones for Nokia. The three new feature phones are the Asha models 202, 203 and 302, all running on Windows Phone. Nokia declared they’d phase Symbian out at last years conference, switching to Windows, and Steve Elop, president and CEO of Nokia, stated, “one year later, we’ve changed the clock speed of Nokia, demonstrating we can rapidly execute our new strategy.”

February 27, 2012
Android Smartphones & iPhone Gain Market Share, Everyone Else Loses

Android’s market share grew 2.5% in the fourth quarter of 2011 to 47.3% of the smartphone market, according to data just released by comScore. In September Google’s operating system had 44.8% of the smartphone market. Smartphone users make up 40% of the overall mobile phone market.

Apple also grew in market share during the last quarter, and by nearly as much. In September Apple had 27.4% of the smartphone market. Apple’s market share grew 2.2%, hitting 29.6% in December.

Of course, with Apple and Android getting a collective surge of nearly five percentage points, someone has to have lost out. Well, perhaps unsurprisingly, the big loser appears to have been RIM. Their BlackBerry platform went into the quarter with a market share of 18.9%. By December they had lost 2.9% – more than either Apple or Android gained – to bottom out at 16%. Meanwhile, Microsoft and Symbian suffered smaller drops, finishing December at 4.7% and 1.4% market share, respectively.

ComScore also collected data about mobile phone OEMs (original equipment manufacturers). Apple gained 2.2 percentage points and ended December with a market share of 12.4% of all mobile phones, not just smartphones. That leaves Apple in fourth place, after Samsung, LG, and Motorola. RIM maintained its fifth place position. Of the top five mobile phone manufacturers, Apple was the only OEM to actually gain market share during the September-December period. Samsung held steady at 25.3%, while LG, Motorola, and RIM all lost market share.

Finally, comScore looked at mobile content usage (i.e., activities other than making phone calls) across all mobile subscribers, not just smartphone users. The most popular activity by far is texting, with 74.3% of users saying they had used their phone to send text messages. The second most popular activity at 47.6% was downloading mobile apps, followed very closely by using their phone’s browser at 47.5%. Just over two thirds – 35.3% said they used their phone to access social networking sites or blogs, while 31.4% played games and 23.8% listened to music. All of these activities gained in popularity in December. Downloading apps saw the biggest jump in popularity at just over 5%.

[via comScore]

February 2, 2012
Nokia’s Symbian Finishes As 2011’s Top Mobile OS

StatCounter has released their analysis of global market share for smartphone operating systems, and the results are a little surprising. Android had an excellent year, growing steadily and finishing just below iOS. Apple, on the other hand, finished the year down, dropping below Android briefly in late summer, before enjoying a resurgence with the release of the iPhone 4S. BlackBerry had a positively dismal year, as its market share was cut nearly in half – dropping from 15% to 8%. The big surprise is Nokia’s Symbian operating system. Symbian started the year a full 5% above iOS, with a 30% market share. It surged to 33.58% in June before diving again, bottoming out at 29% in October. The last two months of the year, however, saw an amazing recovery as Symbian’s market share shot back up to finish December at 33.63%, just a hair above the June peak. Have a look at the chart for yourself:

Remarkably, most of this growth has come after Nokia’s decision to re-release Symbian under an open source-like license, a decision which followed shortly after the company’s choice of Windows Phone as its “primary smartphone strategy.” Thus while Symbian’s global market share remains strong, Nokia’s committment to the platform appears less so, leaving the future of the world’s single most popular operating system in doubt.

December 29, 2011
Samsung Reportedly Dropping Symbian Support By End of the Year

Samsung is reportedly dropping support for the Symbian operating system. According to Engadget, the company sent an email to Symbian developers saying they are closing its Symbian forum and removing all Symbian content before the year is over.

While perhaps not entirely unexpected, as Engadget points out Samsung hinted at such a move last year, it is interesting timing. Symbian has recently revamped its OS.

Marketers may want to take note of the decreased support of Symbian. Recent research from Smaato indicated that Symbian beats all other mobile operating systems when it comes to ads clicked.

"Symbian and Feature Phones continue to perform well with a CTR Index of 130 (145 in July) and 120 (118 in July) respectively," the company says. "RIM passes Android in performance, with its strongest month since Smaato’s metrics began. Apple overtook Windows Phone, as it fell by almost half from 98 in July to 58. The Index consists of the average CTR of all devices and this number is set to 100."

"Symbian remains the leading OS in both regions [USA and Europe] as Windows Phone and Android both dropped by around 40% in the US (Windows 153 in July 80 in August. Android 103 in July to 60)," says Smaato. "In Europe, Windows Phone and Android dropped in performance, but while Windows remains the second best OS, Android fell to last place."

That research comes from a company that serves over 16 billion ad requests from over 7,000 publishers over 50 ad networks.

A couple weeks ago, Nokia announced a new family of smartphones powered by Symbian.

October 1, 2010
Why Nokia’s New Smartphones Mean Good Things for Marketers

As reported earlier, Nokia has announced a new family of smartphones powered by the Symbian platform. The Nokia E7, C7 and C6 join the previously announced N8.

Depending on how well these devices sell, this could mean good things for the future of the Symbian platform, which itself has been greatly updated. This could also mean good things for marketers, as stats from Smaato indicate that the Symbian beats all other mobile operating systems when it comes to ads clicked (via Wired). Smaato serves over 16 billion ad requests from over 7,000 publishers and over 50 mobile ad networks.

"Symbian and Feature Phones continue to perform well with a CTR Index of 130 (145 in July) and 120 (118 in July) respectively," the company says. "RIM passes Android in performance, with its strongest month since Smaato’s metrics began. Apple overtook Windows Phone, as it fell by almost half from 98 in July to 58. The Index consists of the average CTR of all devices and this number is set to 100."

"Symbian remains the leading OS in both regions [USA and Europe] as Windows Phone and Android both dropped by around 40% in the US (Windows 153 in July 80 in August. Android 103 in July to 60)," says Smaato. "In Europe, Windows Phone and Android dropped in performance, but while Windows remains the second best OS, Android fell to last place."

Smaato co-founder Harald Neidhardt told Wired’s Ryan Singel he could only speculate on the CTR differences among operating systems. A couple guesses he made were related to displays and demographics.

Whatever the case may be, if the numbers are indicative of the big picture, more advanced Symbian phones in more users’ hands would appear to be a good thing for mobile marketers moving forward. They would also appear to suggest marketers have a ways to go for effectiveness on other operating systems.

Read our interview with Trumpia’s Tim Nguyen for some mobile marketing tips.

September 14, 2010
Nokia Unveils New Family of Smartphones

Nokia has announced a new family of smartphones powered by the new Symbian platform. The devices are integrated with enhanced Ovi services and apps. They are the Nokia E7, the Nokia C7 and the Nokia C6.

The latest version of Symbian comes with over 250 new features such as HDMI support, multiple personalized home screens, multipoint touch, multitasking and "turbo charged" graphics.

"We are thrilled that Nokia, the world’s leading smartphone manufacturer, continues to recognize the power of the Symbian platform and has chosen it to run on four of the company’s hottest new smartphones," says

Daniel Rubio, Leadership Team member for Technology and Delivery Management at Symbian. "It is very rewarding to see the Symbian^3 platform brought to life so faithfully on these devices, providing compelling experiences at a range of price points that will make them accessible and appealing to users around the world."

The three devices mentioned join the previously announced Nokia N8 in the Nokia smartphone family.

"Today our fight back to smartphone leadership shifts into high gear," said Niklas Savander, Executive Vice President, Markets, Nokia. "Despite new competition, Symbian remains the most widely used smartphone platform in the world. Our new family of smartphones introduced today feature the all-new Symbian OS, rewritten to be faster, easier to use, more efficient and more developer friendly."

In fact, Nokia announced some improvements in developer tools, such as significant enhancements to the Nokia Qt software development kit (which the company says results in 70% reduction in the number of lines of code required when developing for the phones), improvements in the Ovi Store user experience, and a lower barrier of entry and increased monetization opportunities for developers (like free Java and Symbian signing, in-app purchase, improved revenue share, and advanced analytics).

Savander also commented on the anticipation for the Nokia N8, saying, "Based on the level of consumer interest and the highest online pre-orders in Nokia history, we expect big things from the Nokia N8."

September 14, 2010
iPhone 4 Reviews Take Over the Web

iPhone 4 reviews are all over the web now. Techmeme has a pretty huge roundup of them. You can find just about every angle of this phone covered, including the insides.

TechCrunch is reporting that Apple may be adding another patent infringement lawsuit against HTC. These two companies already have suits against each other.

Fortune points to a Piper Jaffray report indicating that the App Store accounts for about 1% of Apple’s gross profit.

A report from SMobile Systems suggests that about 20% of Android Apps "grant a third party application access to private or sensitive information that an attacker could use for malicious purposes." The methodology used to come up with this statistic has been questioned, however.

Verizon held its "Next Generation of Droid" event today, in which it unveiled the Droid X, which will be shipping on July 15th (with Android 2.1) for $199 after a $100 rebate, according to this liveblogged coverage of the event.

Nokia is reportedly ditching Symbian on its N Series devices in favor of MeeGo, with the N8 being the last Symbian device in the series.

June 23, 2010
Nokia Brings Skype To Ovi Store

Mobile device maker Nokia said today it has made Skype available as a free download in its online Ovi Store.

The new Skype for Symbian software will allow more than 200 million Nokia smartphone users globally access Skype over a WiFi or mobile data connection.

Skype for Symbian will allow Nokia smartphone users to make free Skype-to-Skype calls to other Skype users, save money on international calls and texts, and share pictures and videos.

"Symbian enables us to bring smartphones to more and more people and ensures scale for our solutions and compelling services, such as Skype," Jo Harlow, Senior Vice President for Smartphones, Nokia.

"We’re seeing around 1.5 million downloads a day on Ovi Store now and believe that the Skype client for Nokia smartphones will have wide appeal to Symbian users."

Skype for Symbian will run on any Nokia smartphone using the latest version of the Symbian platform. Skype said it plans to introduce Symbian to mobile devices from other manufacturers, including Sony Ericsson.

March 3, 2010
Android Set To Be The Fastest Growing Mobile OS

By 2013, IDC estimates the global shipments of smartphones will surpass 390 million units, growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 20.9 percent for the 2009-2013 forecast period.

The smartphone market has a constantly shifting mobile operating system (OS) landscape. In a market once ruled by BlackBerry, Symbian, and Windows Mobile, new players with open standards (Android) and intuitive design and navigation (Mac OS X and webOS) have received strong user and handset vendor interest.

"Mobile operating systems have become the key ingredient in the highly competitive mobile device market," said Stephen D. Drake, vice president, Mobility and Telecom.

"Although the overall look and feel of the device will still play an important role in the buying process, the wrong choice of operating system coupled with an awkward user interface can mean the difference between success and failure."

Symbian will hold onto its top spot worldwide throughout the forecast period. Due mainly to the strength of Nokia in markets outside of the United States, Symbian continues to lead all other mobile operating systems.

Android will experience the fastest growth of any mobile operating system. Starting from a small base of 690,000 units in 2008, total Android shipments will reach 68 million unites by 2013, making for a CAGR of 150.4 percent. Android will benefit from having a growing footprint of handset vendors supporting it and will finish second to Symbian in shipments by 2013.

Linux and webOS shipments will struggle throughout the forecast period. Shipments of Linux-powered devices will trend down due to greater emphasis on the Android platform but will not go away entirely as some vendors will continue to support it. Palm’s webOS, despite growing steadily, will capture limited market share due to limited deployment and availability of devices across multiple carriers.

Related Articles:

> Motorola Slates 20-30 Android Phones For 2010 Release

> Google Delays Launch Of Android Phones In China

> Google Tries To Carve Out Its Place In Mobile

January 25, 2010