Smartphone Value Share Reaches Nearly 50 percent in Third Quarter at USD 1.48 billion

23 November 2010
Asia, Telecommunication

++ Android overtakes Symbian in quarter three as the war of the mobile operating systems continues in Asia ++ 

The popularity of smartphones continues to skyrocket with one in every five handsets being purchased in the Asia region* in the last quarter (July-September 2010) being a smartphone.

According to leading market research company GfK Asia, smartphones continue to register exponential growth in Asia in the last 12 months* with over 4.7 million units of smartphones worth
over USD1.48 billion being retailed in quarter three this year. It now occupies nearly half of the entire handset sales pie.

"Smartphones are the key drivers of the telecommunications industry at this moment. GfK's retail audit findings are showing impressive, almost three-fold increase in value of the industry when we compare sales figures from the latest quarter to the same quarter* a year ago," said Mr Gerard Tan, Regional Account Director for Telecommunications, GfK Asia Pte Ltd. "While only 1.27
million smartphones were sold in the third quarter of last year, over 4.7 million units were sold in the same quarter this year, signifying a growth of nearly 270 percent!"

With the rapid rise of smartphones, an operating system (OS) war is also heating up among major manufacturers in Asia who are scrambling to introduce their smartphones on a more popular and user-friendly platform. Symbian, previously the leading OS since the second half of last year, is facing intense competition from the Android OS which has been registering strong growth in the second and third quarters of 2010.

"Our Q3 report shows that Android has recently overtaken Symbian as the most popular smartphone OS in the context of Asia as a whole, in both value and unit sales. However, it is interesting to note the difference in OS trends when we look at findings in North and Southeast Asia separately," highlighted Mr. Tan.

In Northern Asia, the smartphone OS competition is probably at its most intense as OS shares fluctuate vigorously in reaction to strategic and tactical initiatives from major manufacturers. In the Southeast Asia region however, Symbian has been the leading smartphone OS and continues its lead albeit gradually declining sales. Since the beginning of the year, Android, RIM and iPhone OS have been enjoying gains in the smartphone segment at the expense of Symbian OS. "With the myriad of mobile operating systems available in the Asia market right now, manufacturers have to look beyond hardware to succeed in this market" concluded Mr. Tan.

+++

*Notes

Survey coverage:

• Northern Asia refers to Hong Kong, Macau, South Korea and Taiwan
• Southeast Asia refers to Indonesia, Cambodia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam
• Total Asia covers both North Asia and Southeast Asia

Survey period:

• 12 month survey period: July 2009 – June 2010
• Latest quarter comparison: Q3 2010 vs Q3 2009
  (July-September)