Samsung Widens Market Share with Help from Galaxy S3 while Mobile Phone Market Shrinks

(Photo : Samsung)

In the second quarter of 2012, demand for the Samsung Galaxy S3 has boosted Samsung to a mobile phone market share of 21.6%, relative to Nokia's 19.9% and Apple's 6.9% hold. According to research by Gartner, Samsung saw a 29.5% increase from the second quarter of 2011. Conversely, Apple's iPhone saw a decrease by 12.6% despite a 47.4% growth from last year. Worldwide mobile phone sales as a whole dropped 2.3% from the second quarter of 2011.  

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However, the real story is why we see these trends in the mobile market. Anshul Gupta, Gartner's principal research analyst, speculated about a possible answer.

Gupta states, "The challenging economic environment and users postponing upgrades to take advantage of high-profile launches and promotions available later in the year slowed demand across markets."

With the impending release of the iPhone 5, it is plausible that we are experiencing the lull before the storm. As it is commonly said, economics is dependent on human psychology. 

In terms of the operating system (OS) market, Android continues to lead iOS by 45.3% market share and 69,594.3 units.

Commenting on the state of the market, Gupta writes, "Samsung and Apple continued to dominate the smartphone market, together taking about half the market share, and widening the gap to other manufacturers. No other smartphone had share close to 10 percent. In the race to be top smartphone manufacturer in 2012, Samsung has consistently increased its lead over Apple."

With Samsung makes strides forward and the growing anticipation for the iPhone 5 being blamed for Apple's decreased market share, only time will tell who comes out on top.