|
Android is sitting pretty atop the smartphone market, accountingfor more than 56 percent of the 144.4 million smartphones soldworldwide this past quarter, according to Gartner. The secondclosest rival was iOS, which claimed 22.9 percent of the market. On the other end of the spectrum, sales of Windows smartphonesaccounted for just 1.9 percent of the market, lower than even Bada's 2.7 percent share for the quarter. RIM, meanwhile, clung to a 6.9percent share. Despite Android's market share swelling from 36.4 percent to 56.1percent year over year, the platform's continued dominance is by noways guaranteed, according to Gartner: The smartphone market hasbecome highly commoditized and differentiation is shaping up as achallenge for manufacturers. "This is particularly true for smartphones based on the Android OS,where a strong commoditization trend is at work and most playersare finding it hard to break the mold," said Anshul Gupta,principal analyst at Gartner. "At the high end, hardware featurescoupled with applications and services are helping differentiation,but this is restricted to major players with intellectual propertyassets. However, in the mid- to low-end segment, price isincreasingly becoming the sole differentiator. "This will only worsen with the entry of new players and thedominance of Chinese manufacturers, leading to increasedcompetition, low profitability, and scattered market share," Guptasaid. Both Microsoft and RIM may have a shot at chipping away Android'slead, though it won't be easy. Microsoft is paying the price fortaking so long to bring a viable mobile OS to market. Still, thecompany is a powerhouse in the technology field with the resources,connections, and name recognition to give its platform a boost. Thecompany's partnership with Nokia finally appears to be bearing fruit in the Lumia 900, which isreportedly enjoying strong sales and has garnered praise from reviewers and consumers ( not to mention Siri ). Praise for the Lumia 900 is by no means universal, however;InfoWorld mobile maven Galen Gruman was not so impressed. RIM, meanwhile, may have a more difficult time gaining back lostground in the mobile space. The company sold 9.9 million mobilehandsets in the first quarter of 2012, down from 13 million in Q1in 2011. "RIM desperately needs to deliver winning BlackBerry 10products to retain users and stay competitive," said Gupta. "Thiswill be very challenging, because BB10 lacks strong developersupport, and a new BB10 device will only be available in the fourthquarter of 2012." On the hardware side, Samsung took the No. 1 spot in smartphonesales from Apple, having sold 38 million devices for the quarter.Android's growing popularity contributed to Samsung's success.Samsung's Android-based smartphone sales in Q1 represented morethan 40 percent of all Android-based smartphone sales worldwide,according to Gartner. Apple and Samsung raised their combined share to 49.3 percent, upfrom 29.3 percent in the first quarter of 2011, according toGartner, while widening their respective leads over Nokia, whichsaw its smartphone market share drop to 9.2 percent. "Smartphone sales are becoming of paramount importance at aworldwide level. For example, smartphone volumes contributed toapproximately 43.9 percent of overall sales for Samsung as opposedto 16 percent for Nokia," Gupta said. Like Microsoft, Nokia's success in the mobile market will dependheavily on the success of Windows Phone. This story, " Windows Phone: Down but not out in fight with Android ," was originally published at InfoWorld.com . Get the first word on what the important tech news really meanswith the InfoWorld Tech Watch blog . For the latest developments in business technology news, follow InfoWorld.com on Twitter . I am an expert from weddingdressinggowns.com, while we provides the quality product, such as China Slim Fit Tuxedo , China Real Sample Wedding Dresses, Wedding Dressing Gowns,and more.
Related Articles -
China Slim Fit Tuxedo, China Real Sample Wedding Dresses,
|
