The analysts over at IDC have just published a new set of data that says Android powered 69% of the smartphones sold in Western Europe during the first quarter of this year. That’s up from 55% during the previous quarter. How’s iOS doing? Apple took 25% of the market in Q4 2012, but in Q1 2013 it ended up being “just” 20%. Windows Phone, and I know you don’t care, but I figure I’d throw this number in here for kicks, took 6% of sales in Q1 2013. To put that into perspective, during the same quarter in 2012, that number was 4%.
In other words … ouch.
Focusing on the particular vendors, Samsung was on top with 45% smartphone market share. Next up was Apple with 20%. After them was Sony with 10%. And then everyone else ended up with single digit shares. Total number of smartphones shipped in Western Europe in Q1? About 31.6 million units, which is up 12% year on year.
Curiously, IDC says smartphone growth is indeed slowing down, to levels that they say they haven’t seen since 2004. This makes sense when you think about it. Just about everyone who wants a smartphone in Europe probably already has one. It’s the people who don’t that are either too stubborn to change because what they use now is serving them just fine, or a better explanation is they’re waiting for their contract to renew.
You have to remember, EU unemployment rates are horrible right now. Buying a new shiny Galaxy or iPhone is at the bottom of most people’s list of things to do.
