Want to see a tipping point as it happens? Look at global smartphone penetration this year… Latest data on smartphones from Canalys uncovers a global leap in smartphone use as sales of smartphones rise 83% year-on-year. In the first quarter of 2011 over 100m mobiles with smartphone capabilities were sold. Android’s market share leapt from 10 to 35%, and Nokia’s Symbian operating system came in at 26%. More data on smartphone use…
Canalys said the market for smartphones grew 83% from a year ago in the January-to-March quarter to 101 million phones.
While Google’s software platform increased its market share to 35% from less than 10% just a year earlier, Nokia’s Symbian saw its market share dropping to 26% from 45%.
Canalys research put Android at the top of the market in the fourth quarter as well, but gap was small and other analysts saw Symbian still holding on to the top spot.
To help its weakening smartphone position, Nokia unveiled in February a deal to start to use Microsoft’s Windows Phone software in its phones instead of Symbian.
Canalys said the statement weakened Nokia’s position further in markets where operators distribute phones to their clients — Nokia’s first quarter smartphone sales in its home market in Western Europe shrank 20 percent from a year ago.
Nokia’s first Windows Phone model is expected to reach consumers, at the earliest, by end-2011. Without Nokia, Windows Phone continued to struggle in the quarter.
Canalys said Samsung shipped some 3.5 million smartphone using its own bada operating system, outperforming total Windows Phone devices sales by more than a million units.
“Samsung’s own operating system development, combined with the branding and investment in its Wave smartphones at mid-tier prices, has led to good uptake in developed markets, such as France, Britain and Germany,” Cunningham said.
