Q3 Global Smartphone Shipment Results

Another Quarter, another set of results. While Apple claimed top spot in the last quarter’s results, it’s now Samsung’s turn to sit atop and look down at the chasing pack. There are some key things to remember here though. While you’ll see below in the figures that Samsung has opened up a significant lead over Apple there are two factors that have contributed heavily to this. The iPhone 4 was at the end of it’s life cycle during this quarter. A lot of people would have been holding off buying a new iPhone as they waited for the next incarnation to arrive. Traditionally the quarter before a new iPhone arrives is always a quarter of lower sales for Apple. For Samsung, the Galaxy S II saw a quarter of huge sales and this in turn has had a halo effect on the sales of their other Smartphones.

One thing that is clear though is that Samsung is now leading the charge of Android Smartphone sales and while the iPhone 4S may have been seen as a bit of an anti climax by some it is still shaping up to be another huge seller for Apple.

The next quarters results will be  a key indicator of how the Smartphone Wars are heading as we enter the Christmas period with both camps offering new feature phones to compete against each other. I’m sure Nokia / Microsoft  and others will feel they can have a say in this race too!

Q3 Shipment Stats:

Source: Strategy Analytics