Petroc Taylor
Research expert covering global developments in the use of data
Get in touch with us nowVendors' market share of mobile phone sales worldwide 2009-2015, by quarter
In this graph you can see the global market share held by mobile phone vendors from the first quarter of 2008 to the latest financial quarter. In the first quarter of 2009, Nokia had a worldwide market share of 36.2 percent. By the third quarter of 2013, their share was down to just 13.8 percent.
Mobile phone market - additional information
Motorola Inc. presented the first prototype of a handheld mobile in 1973, although the company would not release their first commercially available model, the DynaTAC 8000X, for another eleven years. And even then, it came at an exorbitant price, making the technology only available for the very affluent. Three decades later, the mobile phone market has changed dramatically, in terms of accessibility and penetration, as well as technology and leading manufacturers. In 2015, there were an unprecedented 7.5 billion mobile connections worldwide, a number expected to sharply increase by 2020. Furthermore, the wide availability and decreasing price of new technologies have made smartphones more ubiquitous than ever: some 46 percent of worldwide mobile phone users own a smartphone.
As of the third quarter of 2015, the leading mobile phone manufacturer is the South Korean multinational company Samsung, with a 21.4 percent share of the mobile phone market, representing more than 100 million units sold worldwide. The second most successful mobile phone vendor is Apple Inc., which launched its first iPhone in 2007. That year, the American company sold 1.4 million units, but a sharp increase in popularity led to sales of over 230 million iPhones in the company’s 2015 fiscal year. Nokia has seen a strong decrease in market share in the past few years, after dethroning Motorola in the late 1990s and having dominated the market for a decade. As of 2016, its position is furthermore threatened by the growing popularity of other brands and manufacturers, such as Chinese giant Huawei .
Mobile phone market - additional information
Motorola Inc. presented the first prototype of a handheld mobile in 1973, although the company would not release their first commercially available model, the DynaTAC 8000X, for another eleven years. And even then, it came at an exorbitant price, making the technology only available for the very affluent. Three decades later, the mobile phone market has changed dramatically, in terms of accessibility and penetration, as well as technology and leading manufacturers. In 2015, there were an unprecedented 7.5 billion mobile connections worldwide, a number expected to sharply increase by 2020. Furthermore, the wide availability and decreasing price of new technologies have made smartphones more ubiquitous than ever: some 46 percent of worldwide mobile phone users own a smartphone.
As of the third quarter of 2015, the leading mobile phone manufacturer is the South Korean multinational company Samsung, with a 21.4 percent share of the mobile phone market, representing more than 100 million units sold worldwide. The second most successful mobile phone vendor is Apple Inc., which launched its first iPhone in 2007. That year, the American company sold 1.4 million units, but a sharp increase in popularity led to sales of over 230 million iPhones in the company’s 2015 fiscal year. Nokia has seen a strong decrease in market share in the past few years, after dethroning Motorola in the late 1990s and having dominated the market for a decade. As of 2016, its position is furthermore threatened by the growing popularity of other brands and manufacturers, such as Chinese giant Huawei .
