New research by Gartner, which delivers technology research to global technology business leaders, found that the global smartphone market was down by 2.3 percent in the second quarter from the same period last year, but smartphone sales saw an increase, led by Apple and Samsung. Gartner assumes this overall sales fall is due in large part to the high anticipation of the launch of the new iPhone, but also because of the “challenging global environment,” which is expected to affect Apple’s third quarter sales ahead of the new iPhone shipping.
The report by Gartner on worldwide cell phone sales was released on Tuesday and it showed that an estimated 419 million cell phones were sold to end users in the second quarter this year. This is down by about 1 billion from the second quarter of 2011.
Despite many Apple fans waiting for the next iPhone, Apple still increased iPhone sales (including the 4, 4S, and 3GS) by 2.3 percent, selling around 28.94 million iPhones compared to 19.63 million in the same quarter last year. Samsung, however, doubled Apple’s growth in the same quarter, increasing sales by 5.3 percent from last year thanks to the success of the Galaxy S III. Samsung sold 90.43 million mobile phones compared to the 90.83 million sold in the same quarter last year. Gartner found that Motorola, LG, HTC, Nokia, and RIM all decreased in sales.
In looking at the mobile OS market, Gartner found that Android and iOS together hold almost 83 percent of the market share. Between the two, however, Android comes out on top with 64.1 percent in the second quarter, while Apple holds only 18.8 percent of the second quarter market share.
You can see the full press release of this study on the Gartner website.
Source: Gartner via BGR, Electronista, and The Mac Observer
Image Credit: Recombu
