Small Smartphone Makers Are Helping Change The Mobile Device Landscape

Smartphone giants like Apple and Samsung paved the way for smartphone adoption to reach mass market, but now the emergence of smaller manufacturers is helping drive change. Smartphones now account for 66% of all mobile phones sold globally, according to a report from Gartner released Monday. Smartphone sales were propelled by adoption in emerging markets, marked by 50% growth year-over-year in Eastern Europe and the Middle East and Africa, where feature phones are being abandoned in favor of smartphones. Here are some key points from the report:

• Smaller vendors have a great opportunity in emerging markets. Vendors outside of the top five best-selling companies are picking up collective market share as the traditional market leaders lose it: Apple and Samsung’s combined market share was 37%, down from 44% the same time last year.
• In the platform war, Android phones grew to capture 83% of smartphone market share in the third quarter. Devices running the Android operating system have proved popular in emerging markets due mainly to affordability.
• Growth in mature markets will remain lower than growth in the smartphone market overall. Both Western Europe and the US fell behind smartphone sales growth globally, which was at 20% in the quarter.
• Xiaomi is enormous: The Chinese manufacturer climbed into the top five in the smartphone-vendor list, and grew faster than any smartphone vendor, selling 16 million smartphones in the quarter, for 344% growth year-over-year.

Although Apple’s market share also saw year-over-year growth, its hold on 12.7% of the market is dwarfed by Android’s share. This follows an impressive year of gains for Google's platform: Android was the only platform to gain market share in the first quarter of 2014, and saw a record-high 85% share in the second quarter. China has been a significant factor in Android's rise to dominance, and continuing growth in other emerging markets should aid it in maintaining its hold on platform market share as smaller device makers continue to gain traction in emerging markets.

This is an excerpt from my daily newsletter on the mobile industry, Mobile Insider. Click here to read the whole briefing, here to learn more about BI Intelligence.