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The
latest smartphone market share rankings from analyst firms make grim
reading for one-time giant Nokia; a statement from Strategy Analytics
today notes that Nokia has slipped outside the top three global
smartphone rankings for the first time in history, while IDC goes a step
further and claims the firm has exited the top five.

Data from Strategy Analytics states Samsung shipped 56.9 million
smartphones worldwide in the third quarter of 2012, the largest number
of units ever shipped by a smartphone vendor in a single quarter. Apple
grew a healthy 57 percent annually and shipped 26.9 million smartphones
worldwide for 17 percent market share, up from 14 percent recorded a
year earlier. 

Samsung and Apple combined now account for over half of
all smartphones shipped worldwide, up from around one-third a year ago.

Strategy Analytics says Nokia shipped 6.3 million smartphones worldwide
for a 4 percent marketshare in Q3 2012, dipping from 16.8 million units
and 14 percent share in Q3 2011. 

“Nokia will need to ramp up sharply its
Windows Phone volumes if it wants to recapture a top-three smartphone
position in the next one to two quarters,” commented Neil Shah, Senior
Analyst at Strategy Analytics.

The news from IDC is even worse for Nokia. “Nokia’s exit from the Top 5,
where it had resided since the inception of IDC’s Mobile Phone Tracker
in 2004, was precipitated by the rise of Samsung and Apple globally and
high-growth vendors like Huawei in China, where Nokia was the dominant
player as recently as the third quarter of 2011,” notes a statement.

Both analyst firms differ slightly in their calculations for overall
global smartphone shipments. IDC claims the total vendor market shipped
179.7 million units in Q3 2012 compared to 123.7 million units in Q3
2011, a 45.3 percent year-over-year growth rate. Strategy Analytics
estimated that global smartphone shipments grew 35 percent annually from
120.0 million units in Q3 2011 to 161.7 million in Q3 2012.

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