Market researcher Gartner Inc yesterday reported that global sales of mobile phones to end users reached 428 million units in the third quarter, 2.08 percent growth from the previous quarter, but a 3.1 percent decline from the third quarter of last year.
“After two consecutive quarters of decline in mobile phone sales, demand has improved in both mature and emerging markets as sales increased sequentially,” principal research analyst Anshul Gupta said in the report.
Last quarter, 72.4 percent of the 169.2 million mobile phones sold ran Google Inc’s Android operating system, followed by 13.9 percent for Apple Inc’s iOS.
In the smartphone market, unit sales increased 10.08 percent from 154 million units in the second quarter to 169.2 million units in the third quarter, Gartner said in the report.
“Samsung Electronics Co and Apple together controlled 46.5 percent of the smartphone market, leaving a handful of vendors fighting over a distant third spot,” Gupta said.
The report said Samsung sold 55 million smartphones in the third quarter due to strong demand for its Galaxy range, commanding 32.5 percent of the global smartphone market, while Apple sold 23.6 million iPhones, or a 13.9 percent market share.
Research In Motion (RIM) Ltd and HTC Corp (宏達電) ranked No. 3 and No. 4 last quarter respectively, but Gartner said it was not upbeat on their outlook.
“Both HTC and RIM have seen their sales declining in the past few quarters and challenges might prevent them from holding on to their current rankings in the coming quarters,” Gupta said.
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