Lenovo, ZTE, Huawei and Yulong/Coolpad have taken advantage of the surging low-end smartphone market. According to IC Insights, the four major China-based handset companies are forecast to ship 168 million smartphones in 2013 and together hold a 17% share of the worldwide smartphone market.
Lenovo, ZTE, Huawei and Yulong/Coolpad shipped a combined 98 million smartphones in 2012, a more than 300% surge from the 29 million units shipped in 2011, IC Insights disclosed. It should be noted that the China-based suppliers of smartphones are primarily serving the China and Asia-Pacific marketplace, and offer low-end models that typically sell for less than US$200.
Low-end smartphones are expected to represent just under one-third (310 million) of the total 975 million smartphones shipped in 2013. IC Insights forecast that by 2017, low-end smartphone shipments will represent 46% of the total smartphone market with China and the Asia-Pacific region to remain the primary markets for these low-end models.
Samsung Electronics and Apple are set to continue dominating the total smartphone market in 2013. The two vendors are forecast to ship 457 million units and together hold a 47% share of the total smartphone market in 2013, IC Insights said. In 2012, Samsung and Apple shipped 354 million smartphones and took a combined 50% share of the total smartphone market.
Nokia was third-largest supplier of smartphones behind Samsung and Apple in 2011, but has seen its share of the smartphone market fall. Nokia's smartphone shipments are forecast to decline by another 4% and grab an only 3% share of the total smartphone market in 2013, IC Insights indicated.
Other smartphone producers that have fallen on hard times include RIM and HTC. While each of these companies had about a 10% share of the smartphone market in 2011, IC Insights estimated they will have only about 2% shares of the 2013 smartphone market.
|
IC Insights: Major smartphone leaders unit shipments, 2013 (m units) |
|||||
|
2013(e) rank |
2012 rank |
Company |
2012 |
2013(e) |
Y/Y |
|
1 |
1 |
Samsung |
218 |
306 |
41% |
|
2 |
2 |
Apple |
136 |
151 |
11% |
|
3 |
8 |
LG |
26 |
49 |
88% |
|
4 |
9 |
Lenovo |
23 |
47 |
103% |
|
5 |
4 |
ZTE |
35 |
45 |
29% |
|
6 |
11 |
Huawei |
22 |
41 |
86% |
|
7 |
6 |
Sony |
32 |
40 |
26% |
|
8 |
12 |
Yulong/Coolpad |
18 |
35 |
94% |
|
9 |
3 |
Nokia |
35 |
34 |
-4% |
|
10 |
7 |
HTC |
31 |
22 |
-30% |
|
11 |
5 |
RIM |
33 |
21 |
-36% |
|
12 |
10 |
Google/Motorola |
23 |
18 |
-24% |
|
|
|
Other |
80 |
167 |
108% |
|
|
|
Total |
712 |
975 |
37% |
Source: IC Insights, compiled by Digitimes, November 2013
