Analyst: Samsung, Apple to top Nokia in smartphones
After holding the top spot in the global smartphone market for years, Nokia may soon lose its dominance to Samsung and Apple, according to an investors’ note from Nomura Securities.
Sometime this quarter, the investment firm expects Samsung to grab first place, followed by Apple in second, a move that would shake up a landscape led by Nokia since 1996.
“We are forecasting that Samsung takes the No. 1 position in smartphones in Q2 (fractionally) and that it extends this lead in Q3,” said Nomura. “This represents a significant turnaround from a 4.8 percent share in 1Q10 to 20.4 percent in Q3 2011.”
At the same time, Apple’s smartphone unit share will remain steady at around 17 percent, but Nokia’s is expected to drop from its current 25 percent to about 16 percent. Beyond the current quarter, Nokia will continue to shed market share, according to Nomura, and could be be overtaken by HTC by the end of next year.
This comes as no surprise at all to anyone that has been following the trends in the mobile device market. Nokia’s glory days are over and they know it. The deal with Microsoft was nothing more than a desperate move by two desperate companies and will not change these declining statistics. Poor leadership begets poor market share.