It’s true that second-quarter of this year was for the smartphone vendors, especially for Samsung. But, a market research firm “Gartner” has reportedly stated that mobile phone shipments declined by 2.3% in Q2 of this year compare to the same quarter of the last year; 419 million units mobile phones were sold during Q2 of this year. However, Smartphone recorded 42.7% year-over-year growth in Q2 of this year and also accounted for 36.7% of total mobile phones sales during second quarter of this year.
The global economic challenges and speculations of high-profile devices (coming in the second half of this year) were the two main reasons responsible for slow-down of the demand of the device in the market. It’s well-known that the demand of feature phones are continuously declining, thanks to emerging markets, where users still prefer to own the device.
In Q2 of this year, Samsung reported 29.5% Y/Y growth in mobile device shipments  and managed to extend the lead over Nokia and Apple. Sales of Samsung’s Smartphones were quite impressive during Q2 of this year, accounted 50.4% of all Samsung’s mobile phone shipments. Samsung shipped 45.6 million units during Q2 of this year, thanks to its Galaxy smartphones. Samsung Galaxy SIII was considered as the best Android Smartphone in Q2 of this year; 10 million units of Galaxy SIII were shipped during two months period since its release. On the other hand, Samsung Galaxy Note has reportedly surpassed 10 million units. However, Samsung Galaxy SIII could have been shipped more than 10 million units during Q2 of this year, but failed due to shortage of production.
The consumers’ demand of iPhone dwindled during Q2 of this year due to speculations about Apple’s next generation iPhone 5. However, sales of Apple’s mobile handsets increased by 47.4% in Q2 of this year compare to the same quarter in 2011; while the overall  sales was down by 12.6% compare to Q1 of this year. It’s expected that Apple might experience another weaker response in the Q3 of 2012, but underestimating Apple in Q4 of this year will be a big gaffe for all. Apple could leverage over holiday sales especially in North America and Western Europe.
Both Samsung and Apple are continuously strengthening their grip over smartphone market, but Samsung has uniformly dominating over Apple. On the contrast, sales of Nokia’s mobile phone declined by 14.8% in Q2 of this year compare to the same quarter of the last year. However, Nokia succeeded to manage the shipments of its feature phones in few emerging markets. During Q2 of this year, Nokia’s Lumia devices continued to struggle to lure a significant number of mobile users towards Windows platform.
In Smartphone OS segment, Android extended its lead by 20.7% in Q2 of this year compare to the same quarter a year back, while Apple’s iOS market grew by just 0.6% in Q2 of this year compare to the same quarter of the prior year, but declined by 3.7% compare to the previous quarter.
From the above graph, it’s clear that the market share of Bada and Microsoft’s Windows Phone also grew up in Q2 of this year compare to the same quarter of the prior year. On the contrary, the market share of Symbian and RIM tremendously declined year-over-year in the Q2 of this year. Ultimately, its only Apple And Samsung are only winners in Smartphone space while Windows has got a long way to cover. The only surprise is coming from Chinese phone maker ZTE. But in any ways, exception is always there.
