Smartphone volumes continued their climb in the first quarter of 2010 as volumes reached 55.2 million.

Nokia showed strong growth across all regions, with Latin America the highest growth market, but with the lowest volume. Notable growth came from APAC, which reached just under 10 million units and saw 70% growth year on year. The Greater China area alone has seen nearly 90% growth compared with a year ago, reaching 5.7 million units. Under fierce competition from rivals, Nokia has broadened its touch-screen portfolio over the last six months, with devices such as the 5230, 5800 and 5530.

"For the first time, touch-screens represented over 50% of Nokia's smart phone shipments this quarter, which were historically dominated by the keypad-based candy bar form factors," said Chris Jones, Canalys VP and principal analyst. Aggressive pricing has enabled Nokia to deliver smart phones that appeal to a broader consumer audience. With the launch of its 'all-you-can eat' Comes With Music subscription service in China and the recent announcement of Ovi Music Unlimited in India, Nokia is flexing its muscles in crucial developing markets. Nokia has recently announced a slew of new smart phones aimed at expanding its consumer appeal, including a mid-tier typewriter keyboard smart phone, the E5. The upcoming N8 flagship model will run Symbianˆ3 , bringing a much needed platform refresh and important user interface improvements. But the update is not a dramatic leap forward. With Symbian^4 devices now not expected until 2011, Nokia will need to deliver some strong and attractive product propositions in the second half of 2010 if it is not to lose momentum and risk falling behind in terms of innovation, as Apple, Google, RIM and Microsoft release updates to their respective platforms.

RIM was another vendor to forge ahead, particularly on the back of its impressive performance in Latin America where it saw 297% growth in the first quarter. It also enjoyed a strong performance in APAC with 215% growth, driven primarily by the markets of Southeast Asia. RIM is continuing to demonstrate its growing appeal among consumers worldwide, and its ability to build new operator partnerships and effective channel strategies in developing markets.

While the top two vendors performed well in terms of volume, their market share is still under pressure from Apple, which has made share gains over the past year, climbing from 11% a year ago to 16% in the first quarter of this year. Volumes have been helped by the ending of operator exclusivity arrangements in some markets, as Apple caters to the pent-up demand among customers of other networks.

By: DocMemory
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