Samsung crushes competition in Russian wireless market
updated 09:25 pm EDT, Mon July 9, 2012
Samsung highest in total sales; Apple most profitable per unit
According to a report published by wireless carrier MTS, Apple's share of Russia's nascent smartphone market grew slightly the first quarter of 2012. The overall Russian smartphone market grew 10.1 percent by volume from the first quarter of 2011 with Samsung nearly doubling its share primarily at the expense of Nokia, with huge year-over-year gains.
In one year, Samsung's marketshare rose from 16.2 percent to 35.7 percent of overall sales. Apple's share increased from 5.3 percent to 5.4 percent. From a profit perspective, Samsung's percent of the profit in the market rose from 14.8 percent to 32.3 percent. Apple's profit share rose from 6.4 percent to 7.9 percent, making Apple markedly more profitable per unit sold than Samsung. The time measured includes the release of Apple's iPhone 4S, but not the Samsung Galaxy S III. Nokia's marketshare dropped to 34.5 percent from 58.7 percent in the same time period.
Market trends in Russia point to more lower-end sales (sub-5,000 rubles, or $150). Since the first quarter of 2010 to the first quarter of 2012, the average smartphone sale price dropped from 13,176 rubles to 10,598 rubles, a drop of nearly 20 percent. In the first quarter of 2012, smartphones accounted for 26.7 percent of total handsets sold, an increase of 9.3 percent year-over-year. Blackberry holds 0.1 percent of the first-quarter 2012 sales.
Other consumer-grade connectivity hardware saw large growth as well. In Q1 2012, sales of high-speed 3G USB modems increased seven-fold compared to Q1 2011. Sales of Wi-Fi routers grew 5.7 times in the same time period. [via MTS]
