Q3 summary: Apple joins the Top 5, Sony Ericsson drops off

This week was chock full of financial reports and now it’s time for a summary. According to industry analysts IDC, mobile phone market grew 14.6% with 340.5 million units shipped. Smartphones are playing an ever-increasing role - the estimated smartphone market share is expected to grow by over 50% by the end of the year.

Apple entered the Top 5 phone manufacturers and it’s the second smartphone-only manufacturer among them. Along with RIM (the other smartphone-only company), the two manufacturers have the highest growth rates over the past year.

Despite “Antgennagate”, iPhone 4 phones have been flying off the shelves, allowing Apple to outsell both BlackBerry and Sony Ericsson phones. Samsung, which is holding the second place, has shipped more phones than ever before in its history - largely thanks to the Galaxy S phones and also the Samsung Wave.

LG’s shipments fell and that was felt in the declining profits. Still, LG is holding the third place and is undergoing a CEO change this quarter. Sony Ericsson, which has been in the Top 5 for quite a while, dropped off the list.

Still on top is Nokia - it experienced a modest shipment growth (2%) yet smartphone shipments went up by over 60%. The Average Selling Price (ASP) fell considerably - 190 euro in Q3 of 2009 and 136 euro for the third quarter of this year. They are banking on the Nokia N8 and C7 to increase the ASP.

As for geographic distribution, the iPhone 4 along with Androids from Samsung and HTC are big in Western Europe. In the States competition is more diverse, with the iPhone 4 again, the BlackBerry Torch 9800, HTC Evo 4G, Samsung Galaxy S and Motorola’s Droids performing strongly.

The Asia/Pacific region (except Japan) saw local manufacturers (like Micromax, i-Mobile and Nexian) nibbling away at Nokia’s market share. Japan keeps mostly to itself, with the mobile phone market there dominated by Japanese companies.

Finally, in South America low-end devices from Alcatel, ZTE and Huawei are targeting the local leader (Nokia) and Motorola’s Android phones have found a home away from home.

Source