[October 27th 2004] Worldwide mobile devices Q3 2004 – highlights from the
Canalys research.
The top four mobile device vendors worldwide in Q3 2004 were Nokia, palmOne, HP
and RIM. While their positions remained the same as in Q2, significant changes
occurred in their product line-ups, shipments and market shares. Fujitsu
displaced Sony Ericsson from the fifth spot, thanks to strong sales into the
channel of its Symbian-based FOMA phones in Japan.
Worldwide mobile device market share
Nokia, with its ever expanding range of Symbian-based smart phones, continued to
dominate the overall mobile device market in Q3 2004, having almost 40% share by
units shipped (up from 33% last quarter and 22% a year ago) and year-on-year
growth of 230%. Despite this lead it was second placed palmOne that stood out
this quarter with worldwide shipments of the Treo 600 smart phone rising to over
300,000 (30% of all palmOne devices shipped in Q3), with over a quarter of a
million of these in the US, following a period where it was hampered by supply
problems.
“PalmOne is the clear leader in the US smart phone segment, having raised its
share of this market to a record 55% this quarter,” said Chris Jones, Canalys
director and senior analyst. “The new Treo 650 is a welcome refresh of the
product, but it still needs to branch out into other designs and get more
operators on board if it wants to take on the very strong European and Japanese
smart phone vendors in the markets beyond North America. The RIM BlackBerry 7100
series will also provide competition and is likely to get attention from
customers looking for a voice-capable device in a smaller handset form factor.”
Canalys estimates put Nokia in second place for US smart phone shipments in Q3,
with 23% share. In contrast, Nokia’s share of the smart phone market in EMEA
rose to 87% in the same period, the highest it has been for over two and a half
years.
PalmOne also continues to lead in worldwide shipments of data-centric mobile
devices (handhelds and wireless handhelds), though its shipments fell by 12%
year-on-year in Q3 to just under 750,000, giving it a 25% share of this segment.
Second placed HP increased global shipments of its iPAQs by 19%, to bring it
much closer to palmOne, with 23% market share – a gap of just 2% compared to 10%
one year previously. HP began shipping its h6300 series wireless handhelds in
the US during the quarter, achieving good initial shipments of around 40,000
units, but importantly was also able to increase global shipments of its
standalone handhelds by 12%, despite the declines seen by many vendors in this
area. HP is one of several vendors that are benefiting from the rising demand
for handheld-based GPS navigation solutions in Europe.
This rise in shipments kept HP in third place worldwide in the overall mobile
device market, after Nokia and palmOne. In fourth place overall was RIM, whose
BlackBerry device shipments continue to enjoy year-on-year growth rates above
300%.
Worldwide mobile device share by OS
Looking at the market by operating system, Symbian’s global share increased to
50% from 30% in the same quarter a year earlier and was also up sequentially,
from 41% in Q2 2004. Microsoft remains in the number two position with 20%
share, ahead of PalmSource on 17%.
“Symbian’s position in most regions is shaped primarily by Nokia’s smart phone
performance,” added analyst Rachel Lashford. “In Japan, however, it is Fujitsu’s
success that underpins most of the operating system vendor’s 78% mobile device
share. In the US only 6% of the mobile devices shipped in Q3 2004 ran the
Symbian OS, compared to 43% for PalmSource and 25% for Microsoft.”
While Symbian leads overall, it only plays in the voice-centric part of the
market. For data-centric devices Microsoft led in the quarter with 45% share
globally, up from 40% a year earlier, with PalmSource on 29%, down from 45% in
Q3 2003.
Canalys provides comprehensive tracking and analysis of the markets for all
types of “smart” pocket-sized mobile device in an integrated worldwide research
programme. Its market share estimates include smart phones like the Sony
Ericsson P910, palmOne Treo 650, Orange SPV c500 and Nokia 7610, wireless
handhelds such as the RIM BlackBerry 72xx and 77xx ranges, T-Mobile MDA II and
HP iPAQ h6315, and standalone handhelds (without integral wide-area wireless
capabilities), for example the palmOne Tungsten T5 and HP iPAQ h4150. This
provides clients with a complete picture of the market and enables comparison
between the different classes of device.
Terms explained
Feature phone: pocket-sized device positioned primarily for voice, offers full,
configurable two-way data synchronisation, but OS-based applications cannot be
added without restriction. Example: Nokia 7650.
Smart phone: pocket-sized device positioned primarily for voice, offers full,
configurable two-way data synchronisation, and OS-based applications can be
added without restriction. Example: Sony Ericsson P910.
Handheld: pocket-sized device positioned primarily for data, no integrated
wireless WAN (eg, GSM, GPRS or 3G) capability. Example: palmOne Tungsten T5.
Wireless handheld: pocket-sized device positioned primarily for data, integrated
wireless WAN (eg, GSM, GPRS or 3G) capability. Example: O2 xda II, RIM
BlackBerry 7780.
EMEA: Europe, Middle East & Africa.
APAC: Asia/Pacific region.
About Mobile Device Analysis and Worldwide Mobile Devices
The shipment estimates discussed in this release come from Worldwide Mobile
Devices – the global market tracking expansion to Mobile Device Analysis, the
leading EMEA-focused continuous advisory service from Canalys. Worldwide Mobile
Devices uses the established Canalys mobile device product segmentation and
definitions to give clients a consistent worldwide view of the market for
handhelds, wireless handhelds, smart phones and feature phones. Clients receive
quarterly market updates, trends presentations and forecasts, and direct access
to Canalys analysts. More information...
Analyst photos
About Canalys
Canalys specialises in delivering high quality market data, analysis and advice
to the world's leading technology providers. It is recognised as a key supplier
of continuous advisory services and confidential custom projects by marketing
managers and strategists within blue-chip IT, telecoms and consumer electronics
companies. It has unrivalled expertise in European routes to market for all
kinds of high technology products and services, and provides worldwide market
data and trends analysis.
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