Gartner Q2 report: Nokia still top smartphone maker

Gartner released their report on the mobile phone world in the second quarter and have something very interesting in their numbers - Nokia is sill number one in smartphones, rather than third as other analysts have stated.

The difference comes from which numbers are taken into account - others counted the number of units shipped and not the number of units purchased by end users, which is exactly what Gartner was looking at.

Still, Nokia won't be on top for much longer and Symbian is already well behind Android, with only half the market share of the Google OS. Roles were reversed just a year ago, in Q2 2010, but Android's rise has put it well ahead of the competition now. Of course, "Android" is used by a number of manufacturers, while Symbian phones are made only by Nokia.

Numbers for Q2 2011 show that iOS will soon overtake Symbian too, having already went past BlackBerry OS. Meanwhile, Bada OS has more market share than the Windows Mobile/Phone OSes, but neither are anywhere close to the big players.

In terms of overall market share, not just smartphones Nokia maintains a diminishing lead, but Samsung and LG (who hold second and third place respectively) both have slipped in market share.

Apple is fourth with just their iPhones (Nokia, Samsung and LG have a myriad of models). Sony Ericsson has continued to slip and is now below all well-known makers, including Huawei.

Smartphones are eating into feature phone sales, with many people preferring low to mid range Androids. Smartphones accounted for 25% of all phone sales, up from 17% in Q2 2010.

Source