Apple and Samsung leave Nokia behind with sales of smartphones – Apple becomes the number one supplier of smartphones on Planet

Just four years after entering the market of smartphones with iphone in 2007, Apple became the No. 1 maker of smartphones on the planet. In the second quarter of 2011, Apple sold more smartphones than Nokia and Samsung. The cell phone market has changed a great deal in recent years, and company’s who used to rule the roost is now seeing their fortunes change. New manufactures have taken the lime light as tastes and technology changes. Recently released figures show that Apple and Samsung leave Nokia behind with sales of smartphones. After releasing the iPhone back in 2007 the company has seen massive unit sales which continue to increase. The company currently has an 18.5 percent share of the smartphone market, while Samsung were just behind on 17.5 percent. Cnet are reporting that according to Strategy Analytics Apple achieved this with sales of over 20 million iPhone’s. Samsung has seen big improvements in sales with sales of 19.2 million handsets which have been helped with the success of the Galaxy range of handsets. Nokia’s the former number one continues with the company seeing its market share falling from 38.1 percent a year ago to only 15.2 percent.

The smartphone market is continually changing, and during the past year the Finnish manufacturer Nokia has seen consumers turning their backs on the devices for more advanced operating systems from Apple and Android. Sales of Nokia's smartphones powered by Symbian operating systems started to plummet in February after the company's chief executive officer announced transition from Symbian platform to Windows Phone operating system. The drop off in sales has seen Nokia looking to the Microsoft and its Windows Phone operating system.

Apple is likely to continue its success with the release of the next iPhone in September, with a recent survey finding a high percent of consumers planning on picking one up. Samsung may have been top of the tree if the latest Galaxy S II handset had been available in the US. The handset has already proved to be a massive success in the places it is already available, and there is no reason why that can’t continue once it arrives. Samsung introduced its Galaxy S II flagship smartphone in May, 2011, and sold three million units of the device by early July. The model is available from more than 145 vendors in 120 countries. Nokia only introduced its N9 and Oro smartphones in Q2. The N9 is the first and the last and smartphone powered by MeeGo operating system. The handset sports impressive design and feature-set, but it will only become available in September, 2011, which means that it will face competition from loads of rivals, including Apple and Samsung. Nokia Oro is a smartphone in golden enclosure that is based on C7 low-cost smartphone platform from Nokia.

Around the world the smartphone market grew by an impressive 76 percent with 110 million handsets shipping. Apple managed to double its market share for all types of mobile phones to 5.6 percent in the second quarter. This was the biggest leap for any manufacturer, and kept Apple in fourth place overall.

Nokia were still top but saw its market share dropping to 24.2 percent from 33.8 last year; this position is mainly down to its entry level devices sold in emerging markets. Samsung are also successful selling more basic devices around the world and has the second biggest market share. The company did see its market share fall by a small amount as consumers moved away from Samsung’s cheaper handsets.