Research firm Gartner has
reported a dip in global sales of mobile phones for the second quarter in a row
and will likely cut its 2012 outlook as consumers hold back on handset upgrades
due to economic uncertainty.The research group, whose data is widely used in the mobile sector, also said handset maker Samsung extended its lead over Apple and grew its market share to more than one fifth in the second quarter of 2012. "For 2012, the overall market is looking weaker than what I had actually forecast at the start of the year," said Anshul Gupta, principal research analyst at Gartner, which previously expected 2012 mobile phone sales of around 1.9 billion units.
"Consumers are really holding on to their old devices," he said. Mobile phone sales fell 2% in the second quarter from a year earlier to 419 million units, Gartner said. While some were waiting for new, high-profile devices like Apple's iPhone 5 due later in the year, many others were simply postponing expensive purchases or waiting for promotions, Gupta said.
Samsung continues it's winning ways
Despite the overall weakness, Samsung's quarterly mobile phone sales rose around 30% from a year earlier, helped by record sales of Galaxy smartphones. It overtook Nokia as the leading mobile phone maker with a 22% share of the overall market, the report showed. Nokia's mobile phone sales fell 1%, and its share fell to 20% from 23% a year earlier.
Android maintains dominance
By operating system, Google's Android extended its lead with
64% market share compared with 43% a year earlier, while Apple iOS held a 19%
share, little changed from a year earlier. Nokia's old Symbian system tumbled
to 6% from 22% but Microsoft Windows, which the Finnish mobile phone maker now
uses, rose to nearly 3% from under 2% a year ago.
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