Gartner says Apple, Google small but draw share

Apple, Google and to a lesser extent RIM were the biggest winners for smartphone market share in 2009, according to Gartner's final end-of-year study. The three saw the fastest growth in share; RIM had the largest absolute share, moving up to 19.9 percent and second place with the BlackBerry line, but Apple and Google each grew faster. Apple jumped from just 8.2 percent of smartphones in 2008 to 14.4 percent for all of last year, while Android surged from just half a point through its late 2008 launch to 3.9 percent for all of 2009.

These gains led directly to drops for competing platforms. Symbian dropped below the 50 percent mark for the first time to 46.9 percent, narrowing its lead. Other traditional platforms have also suffered: the iPhone overtook Windows Mobile in share last year as Microsoft's aging platform dropped from 11.8 percent to 8.7 percent, effectively taking Apple's fourth place spot from 2008. Pure Linux fell from 7.6 percent to 4.7 percent as many of its proponents chose the Linux-based Android platform instead.

Palm's webOS grew but got off to only a modest start with 0.7 percent, Gartner said. However, with just Sprint and late launches through O2 and Telcel, the reach of the platform was limited compared to this year, where deals with AT&T, SFR, Verizon and others are expected to provide meaningful growth.

In absolute cellphone market share, none of the pure smartphone makers breached the top five. However, poor performances in the smartphone arena are generally believed to have cost Nokia, Motorola and Sony Ericsson overall share in 2009. Nokia in particular dropped from 38.6 percent to 36.9 percent as Symbian S60 lost out to fresher competitors. Motorola's move into the mid-range and high-end areas cost it share, though much of this was hurt by Motorola offering relatively few strong-selling devices until the success of its Android phones. It and Sony Ericsson had depended primarily on soon defunct mobile platforms like UIQ for some of the year and until the end of the year had depended almost exclusively on Windows Mobile for smartphones.

All three are expected to fight back with modernized platforms, including Symbian^3 for Nokia and Sony Ericsson as well as Android for all but Nokia.

Among general phone makers, Samsung and LG were the most successful with steady growth to 19.5 and 10.1 percent of the market respectively, holding the second and third places. Samsung's growth was helped by focusing on the mid-range as well as better distribution through carriers. That should continue through 2010 as the company focuses on its pseudo-smartphone Bada platform for phones like the Wave.

By Electronista Staff