Global handset shipments increased by 19% to 303 million for the first quarter of 2010, with strongest growth in the Middle East and Africa (20% YoY) followed by the Americas, particularly in the US (11%), according to a new report from ABI Research.
Jake Saunders, VP for forecasting at ABI Research, said: “This bodes well for 2010 as a whole: shipments could well reach 1.3 billion. It is also notable that 3G handset shipments eclipsed 2G handset shipments.”
According to the report, Nokia took the top spot with a market-share of 34%, as new smartphones such as the N8 are helping it to shore up its portfolio, as its loss of traction in the smartphone sector hit sales hard. Samsung secured 21% of the market share, with its shipments growing 40.2% compared to same period last year.
LG’s secured market-share of 8.9%, with shipments recording a growth rate of 20% year-over-year. Motorola has benefited from its initial success (2.8%) with the Droid and it keen to back it up with new products such as the Quench. The company is hoping the strong social networking theme to its smartphone line-up to help it to curry favor with the youth and prosumer market, ABI Research said.
The first quarter also proved strong for Apple with 8.75m devices shipped, an increase of 130% compared to same period a year ago, the firm said.
