Canalys and Gartner have posted their Q3 market share numbers for open operating systems. The numbers differ slightly based on how some manufacturers were counted and whether the numbers represented actual sell-thru, or sell-in to the channel, but both provide an interesting look into how this market is evolving. The Android open mobile operating system is not included in the analysis.
Perhaps the biggest surprise is that Apple, who remember wasn’t even a phone manufacturer two years ago, has been blazing a trail past the 50+ Windows Mobile OEM device maker partners, RIM and its lineup of business and consumer devices, and is nestling in behind Symbian, who lost market share overall at the expense of the growth primarily from Apple and RIM. Nokia and Symbian could see a bump in Q4 with the phones they have shipped, but most were late arriving in market for holiday and may not see uptick until Q1 (N79, N85, 5800, E63, and E71 still isn’t shipping for North American operator, though hope is AT&T will launch in Q1 09). The Symbian Foundation is just gearing up, and it will be a while before we see Symbian open-sourced. HTC, Samsung and Sony Ericsson will all ship Android phones in 2009.
2009 data should include available applications for each platform as another indicator of what is helping these operating systems to gain adoption and traction in the market, as well as ecosystem revenue generation built around these platforms.
The below charts break out manufacturer and open mobile platform. Both the Canalys and Gartner tables are provided for comparison. To view the Canalys Q3 report, click here. To view the Gartner Q3 report, click here.
Worldwide: Preliminary Smartphone Sales to End Users byVendor, 3Q08 (Thousands of Units)
|
Company |
3Q08 Sales |
3Q08 Market Share (%) |
3Q07 Sales |
3Q07 Market Share (%) |
3Q08- 3Q07 Growth (%) |
| Nokia |
15,472 |
42.4 |
15,964 |
48.7 |
-3.1 |
| Research In Motion |
5,800 |
15.9 |
3,192 |
9.7 |
81.7 |
| Apple |
4,720 |
12.9 |
1,104 |
3.4 |
327.5 |
| HTC |
1,656 |
4.5 |
1,315 |
4.0 |
25.9 |
| Sharp |
1,239 |
3.4 |
1,535 |
4.7 |
-19.3 |
| Others |
7,626 |
20.9 |
9,643 |
29.4 |
-20.9 |
| Total |
36,515 |
100.0 |
32,753 |
100.0 |
11.5 |
Note: Under the name HTC, Gartner counts only the company’s own-branded devices. The devices that HTC designs for mobile operators are shown separately under the operators’ names in these statistics.
Source: Gartner ( December 2008 )
Worldwide: Preliminary Smartphone Sales to End Users by Operating System, 3Q08 (Thousands of Units)
|
Company |
3Q08 Sales |
3Q08 Market Share (%) |
3Q07 Sales |
3Q07 Market Share (%) |
3Q08- 3Q07 Growth (%) |
| Symbian |
18,179 |
49.8 |
20,664 |
63.1 |
-12.0 |
| Research In Motion |
5,800 |
15.9 |
3,192 |
9.7 |
81.7 |
| Mac OS X |
4,720 |
12.9 |
1,104 |
3.4 |
327.5 |
| Microsoft Windows Mobile |
4,053 |
11.1 |
4,180 |
12.8 |
-3.0 |
| Linux |
2,622 |
7.2 |
2,884 |
8.8 |
-9.1 |
| Palm OS |
780 |
2.1 |
383 |
1.2 |
103.3 |
| Others |
361 |
1.0 |
345 |
1.1 |
4.6 |
| Total |
36,515 |
100.0 |
32,753 |
100.0 |
11.5 |
Note: The “Others” category includes sales of Sharp Sidekick devices based on the Danger platform.
Source: Gartner ( December 2008 )
Tags: Android, iPhone, marketshare, RIM BlackBerry, symbian, Windows Mobile
January 4, 2009 at 9:38 pm |
Nice report guys.
Wow, Apple is really blazing a trail, had no idea they’d shifted that many units, impressive stuff.
April 28, 2009 at 5:28 pm |
Just a quick summary of all the charts above:
#1 smart phone ww share HARDWARE (Q3′08:Q3′07): APPLE @ 520%
#1 end user sales from vendor in HARDWARE (Q3′08:Q3′07): APPLE @ 327.5%
#1 smart phone ww share SOFTWARE (Q3′08:Q3′07): APPLE OS X@ 523%
#1 end user sales from vendor in SOFTWARE (Q3′08:Q3′07): APPLE OS X 327.5%
May 16, 2009 at 8:05 pm |
I found your blog on google and read a few of your other posts. I just added you to my Google News Reader. Keep up the good work. Look forward to reading more from you in the future.
June 7, 2009 at 5:49 pm |
Guys,
Any plans on putting up an app for Palm Pre?
June 11, 2009 at 3:08 am |
Yes, we would definitely like to support the Pre. Think Palm has done an amazing job pulling together and hope it is successful in the market.