Handset shipments shrank 7.5 percent in the fourth quarter last year from the same period in 2010 as demand for feature phones slumped, according to the latest report from International Data Corp (IDC) released yesterday.
Shipments dropped to 2.15 million units in the final quarter of last year from 2.33 million units in the fourth quarter of 2010, IDC said. The market researcher said a 46.2 percent annual decline in feature-phone shipments was behind the contraction.
FEATURE-PHONE DECLINE
Shipments of feature phones plunged to 820,000 units last quarter, compared with 1.5 million units a year earlier, according to the report. Smartphone shipments jumped 66.4 percent year-on-year to 1.33 million, accounting for 62 percent of overall cellphone shipments last quarter, doubling from 34.3 percent in 2010, it said.
“Smartphones will take a bigger share over the next few quarters as global mobile phone makers are gradually withdrawing from the feature-phone market, helped by increased subsidies from telecoms operators,” IDC analyst Joey Yen (嚴蘭欣) said in the report.
On a quarterly basis, overall phone shipments increased 12.1 percent from 1.92 million units in the third quarter of last year, IDC’s report showed. Smartphone shipments expanded 18.2 percent quarter-on-quarter from 1.13 million units.
In terms of operating systems, Android-powered phones made up 75.5 percent of total smartphone shipments last quarter. Apple Inc’s iPhone came in second.
SYMBIAN DROPPING
Shipments of handsets running Nokia’s Symbian operating system dropped to a single-digit percentage for the first time. Smartphones powered by Microsoft Corp’s newly released Mango operating system had a 3 percent share, just behind phones running the Symbian system, IDC said.
HTC Corp (宏達電) seized the top position in the nation’s smartphone market last quarter, followed by Samsung Electronics Co and Apple Inc, IDC said.
The fast rise in smartphone sales also helped push the telecoms sector to the top of the charts in the technical consumer goods market in the fourth quarter, up by 50 percent year-on-year, GfK Group said in a separate report yesterday.
Smartphone sales accounted for 40 percent of overall mobile phone sales, a rise that was mainly attributed to the launch of new models and hot sales of smartphones with screen sizes of at least 4 inches, as well as frequent promotions launched by retailers and telecoms service providers, GfK said.
Overall, sales in the telecommunications sector were up 20 percent last year compared with 2010, it said.
Additional reporting by CNA
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