Market analysts at research firm Canalys, in their Q2 2011 estimate of smart phone market shipments, have projected that devices based on the Android operating system continue to be the strongest growth driver in the smartphone market, with shipments of 51.9 million units. Canalys estimates a global market share of 48% for Android shipments in Q2. This represents a higher share for Android than the 38.9% 2011 share estimate of research firm IDC, that was matched by the Nielsen polling company's 39% Android share estimate for the U.S. market.
Canalys found that Android is strongest in the Asia Pacific region, with 39.8 million units shipped, compared to 35.0 million in EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa), and 32.9 million in the Americas. Android dominates in South Korea (home of Samsung), with an 85% platform share, and in Taiwan (home of HTC) with 71%. While Samsung has moved ahead of Nokia for the global lead in smartphones, Canalys's opinion is that this performance was underwhelming given the ongoing weakness of Nokia during its transition to Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 operating system. However, Canalys also noted that Samsung achieved year-on-year growth of 421%, not exactly poor results, which included 355% growth in devices carrying the entry-level smartphone operating system 'bada'. Bada is actually better positioned to take share from Nokia's Symbian, in the less developed markets where Nokia retains some strength, than is the more fully featured Android.
Nokia’s leadership position has proved most resilient in key emerging markets, and it still leads in the BRIC countries: Brazil, Russia, India and China. ‘The problem for Nokia is that demand for its Symbian-based smart phones has dissipated very rapidly, particularly in operator-led markets, such as Western Europe, where it’s been strong in the past,’ said Canalys Principal Analyst Pete Cunningham.
Canalys pegged Apple's shipments of 20.3 million iPhones in Q2 as equivalent to a global market share of 19%, just slightly higher than IDC's 2011 estimate of 18.2% for iOS. The firm put RIM at just 12% for the quarter, down from 33% a year ago and less than IDC's 2011 estimate of 14.2%, though the company's global shipments actually grew 11% year on year.
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