Apple grabs 2.8 percent of smartphone market

Gartner reports worldwide smartphone shipments in Q2 2008 totalled 32.2 million units, a 15.7 percent jump from the same period a year earlier. Smartphone shipments account for around 11 percent of all mobile device sales and the market leader is still Nokia with a marketshare of 47.5 percent. Research In Motion takes the second place with a marketshare of 17.4 percent and both HTC and Sharp rank third with just 4.1 percent of the market.

The Apple iPhone is one of the most hyped phones ever but this unit managed to grab only 2.8 percent of the market in the second quarter.

In the second quarter of 2008, Apple’s share of global smartphone sales to end users decreased to 2.8% from 5.3% in the first quarter of 2008. The significant drop in sales was mainly due to the company having to clean the channel of first-generation iPhone units before the arrival of the iPhone 3G in June. Apple's sales figure in the second quarter of 2008 accounted for sales of inventory carried over from the first quarter of 2008. Gartner analysts expect iPhone sales to grow significantly in the second half of 2008, enabling the company to regain a top position in the global smartphone vendor rankings.

For the smartphone operating system market, Symbian commanded 57% of the global sales to end users in the second quarter of 2008 compared with 66% in the same period last year. Symbian's performance was affected by a 26% drop in unit sales in Japan and Symbian's licensee Mitsubishi exiting the market. Overall, Symbian's share declined as a result of a more competitive and fragmented mobile operating system market.

Sales of Microsoft Windows Mobile devices increased 20.6% year over year, with Microsoft's share remaining flat at 12% in the second quarter of 2008. Microsoft's strongest region in unit terms was North America, followed by Western Europe. Both regions combined accounted for 74% of global Windows Mobile sales.

More details at X-bit Labs.