International Data Corporation (IDC) has said that while smartphone shipments in Western Europe increased 48%, Nokia smartphone sales were hit, registering a decline of 60% in the second quarter of 2011.
According to the latest European Mobile Phone Tracker from IDC, Western European feature phone shipments continued to decline sharply in 2Q11 as consumers increasingly move to smartphones.
Feature phone shipments were down 29% to 20.4 million units in 2Q11, while smartphone shipments increased 48% to 21.8 million units from a year ago.
This is the first time that smartphone shipments have surpassed feature phone shipments in Western Europe, representing 52% of total mobile phone shipments.
IDC said that all European countries are seeing increasing smartphone adoption, as consumers go for Android-based devices and the iPhone from Apple.
IDC European mobile devices research manager Francisco Jeronimo said smartphones now dominate the Western European phone market and those vendors with stronger portfolios in the segment are consolidating their positions, compared with those manufacturers with less attractive smart devices.
Jeronimo said, "Android-powered handsets from the likes of Samsung, HTC, and Sony Ericsson have been able to drive strong volumes and to grab the biggest slice of share from the declining Symbian as Nokia moves to Windows Phones."
While, Samsung (700%), Apple (64%), HTC (121%) and Research In Motion (15%) all registered impressive growth in the second quarter, Nokia lost its market sahre from 39% a year ago to just 11% in the Western European market.
Nokia shipped 2.3 million units in 2Q11, a decline of 60% compared to 5.8 million units sold last year in the same quarter.
The total Western European mobile phone market, however, declined 3% year on year to 42.2 million units in the quarter, according to IDC.
Jeronimo said that the overall market had slipped into the red due to a number of factors: "First, the economic environment in the eurozone is deteriorating, with a direct impact on consumer demand. Secondly, the smartphone segment was strongly impacted by the sharp decline of Nokia, which was not totally offset by the remaining players, which may indicate that Symbian fans are holding off on their phone replacements until Nokia launches its Windows Phones. Lastly, operators focused on clearing inventories for the introduction of the new devices expected in the third quarter, such as the iPhone5 from Apple and Windows Phones from HTC and other players."
In the combined smartphone and feature segments, Samsung was the leader with a market share of 33%, followed by Nokia with 21%, Apple 11%, HTC and Research in Motion (RIM) with 7% each, and others with 21%.
In the smartphone segment only, Samsung again is the leader with market share of 22%, followed Apple with 21%, HTC and RIM with 14% each, Nokia 11% and others with 18%, the IDC report said.
