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May 21, 2012

Forward Concepts Releases Annual Cellular Market Report

Worldwide sales of mobile phones (budget, midrange, feature an smartphones) to end users reached 379 million units in the first quarter of 2012, a nine percent decline from the first quarter of 2011, according to Forward Concepts in its new study of market cellular terminals and their chips.

Forward Concepts says this report is the most in-depth analysis of cellphones, tablets and their chips on the market.

“We are confident that this study provides the most comprehensive coverage of cellular handset and tablet chip markets available,” said Will Strauss, Forward Concepts’ president and editor of the report.

The new study titled, “Cellular Handset & Tablet Chip Markets ’12,” compared the first quarter of 2012 versus the first quarter of 2011 in vendor unit shipments and revenue for all cellphones, smartphones and tablets.

The study also forecasts all chip types in units, average selling price and revenue through 2016.

According to the study, sales of smartphones reached 139 million units in the first quarter of 2012, reaching 37 percent of the global cellphone market.

Additionally, Apple and Samsung raised their combined share to 45.7 percent, up from 30 percent in the first quarter of 2011. Meanwhile, Nokia fell below as its market share dropped to 8.6 percent.

Other key findings include:

  • Q1 of 2012, Apple iPADs toppled the media tablet market, which includes the $199 Amazon Kindle and Barnes & Noble Nook, with a 59.3 percent share.
  • With the introduction of Apple’s multimode LTE “iPAD3,” they lowered the price of the iPAD2, creating a decline in the Android tablet shipments.
  • Ereader experienced a significant drop with a shipment of just 1.4 million units in the first quarter of 2012, down from 4.2 million units shipped in the final quarter of 2011.
  • Among the top 10 cellphone vendors, Nokia, Samsung and Apple topped 2011 unit shipments while Chinese suppliers Huawei, ZTE and TCL also moved into the top 10.

“Global sales of mobile devices declined in Q1 more than expected due to a slowdown in demand from the emerging regions,” said Carter L. Horney, principal author of the Forward Concepts’ report. “All vendors were impacted at different levels; however, Chinese white-box vendors suffered the most with bloated inventories.”

Despite recent drops, Forward Concepts believes smartphones will continue to do even better in 2012, growing a predicted 17 percent to the 502 million unit level. Global cellular handset shipments are also expected to have a stronger 2012 unit growth of 11 percent.




Edited by Rich Steeves


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