iPhone market share slips to 13.1% in Q2

Bloomberg

Apple shipped more iPhones in the second quarter than ever before, but saw its market share continue to fall worldwide.

Competition in the highly fragmented smartphone market continued to grow in the most recent quarter, with Apple shipping more iPhones than ever?while simultaneously seeing its share of the global smartphone market fall more than 3 percent.

Two reports out Thursday?from analysts at IDC and Strategy Analytics?paint similar pictures: More people are buying smartphones than ever before, in a marketplace glutted with choice.

Smartphone newcomers LG, Lenovo and ZTE all saw year-over-year gains in global market share, at the expense of Samsung and Apple.

IDC estimates phone makers shipped 237.9 million smartphones in the second quarter, a 52.3 percent improvement over the 156 million smartphones they shipped this time last year. (Strategy Analytics pegs global smartphone sales slightly lower, at 229.6 million).

Roughly 1 out of 3 smartphones sold today bears a Samsung logo.

IDC says the newest iPhone?which analysts widely believe will launch before the end of the year?will no doubt juice Apple?s numbers, as millions of people who want to upgrade their older iPhones wait patiently for the next version. Apple?s rumored, low-cost, plastic iPhone could help the company compete with lower-end smartphone makers.

?The opposite end of the spectrum is just as, if not more, interesting,? said IDC analyst Richard Llamas. ?Lower-priced smartphones continue to gain traction, but the key for vendors will be to keep prices low while still offering premium devices and services. We fully expect to see large-screen smartphones and other flagship devices establish a presence within the lower-priced smartphone segment as well.?

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/bizj_triangle/~3/kSaJKWDhVXA/iphone-market-share-slips-to-131-in-q2.html

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