Global Mobile Trends 2009-2010

We all know that the future of technology as we know it is moving to mobile!  That isn’t exactly a revolutionary statement, we all know this is happening and the migration to mobile is happening everywhere, from your favourite iPhone app, through to geo-location based services on your Nokia, Blackberry, or whatever brand of phone you use.

Now when you start wanting to build mobile applications and you want to hit the biggest market, how do you decide?  Do you go for the city types using Blackberry?  Or do you aim for the gadget junkies on their iPhones and iPads?  Or how about Google lovers on the Google Android?  And our long forgotten elephant in the room – Nokia?  How do you decide which one comes first?  Do you try and develop for all the mobile types or do you pick one and take an iterative approach for reaching the market.

So as a bit of fun, I decided to do a bit of research into the mobile market and see what was happening in the world today?  Was it all hype or are there real big changes happening in the SmartPhone market.

Here I’m focusing on the Smartphone market, because it’s where most mobile users are migrating to, depending on where you are in the world exactly.  North America and Europe are already there, but if you’re in Egypt – we’re still catching up on Smartphones though Blackberry’s are pretty much everywhere!

First, let’s look at the Global Sales of Smartphones in Q2 of 2009:

Global Smart Phone Sales 2009 Q2
Global Smart Phone Sales 2009 Q2

Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_operating_system

So based on the above, what we find is as follows, in Q2 of 2009 it was Symbian at the top by a huge margin, RIM Blackberry up at second place and Apple iPhone and Windows Mobile fighting pretty close at spot 3 and 4 with Google Android and other mobile OS’s in last position.

Now moving towards 2010, Q2, the market is changing fast!

Global Smart Phone Sales 2010 Q2
Global Smart Phone Sales 2010 Q2

Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smartphone taken from Gartner

In just 1 year, Symbian has lost just over 9% of its market share to mainly the Google Android OS which is up to 17% from only 2.8%!  Google Android is really eating out of the market share of Symbian, RIM Blackberry and the Windows Mobile OS.  Rim Blackberry is down from 20.9 to 18% and Windows Mobile is down from 9% to 5%.  The iPhone is remaining pretty much as is from 13.7% to a mere 14% – not a big jump for an OS which is generally perceived as a big player in the Smartphone market.  Not only that, but Google Android has jumped into third place globally passing straight past the Apple iPhone.  In the US Market alone, the Google Android platform has overtaken the RIM Blackberry and other Smartphone OS’s to be the number 1 Smartphone OS – not bad for a player that’s only been in the market for 3 years! (Unveiled on 5 November 2007)

Now, when it comes to Smartphones, the landscape is changing pretty quickly with Android suddenly becoming a bigger player in a very short time.  Well done Google!

However, what about the general mobile sales?  What happens when we look at all brands of mobiles being sold?  Well here are the stats for Worldwide Mobile Device Sales in Q2 2009:

Worldwide Mobile Sales Market Share - 2009 Q2
Worldwide Mobile Sales Market Share – 2009 Q2

At this stage, it’s looking like actually Nokia, Samsung and LG have most of the market with SmartPhones Apple, RIM Blackberry and HTC (Android) taking very small chunks of the overall market.  So in 2009, Symbian pretty much has over 50% of the market share with everyone else trailing far behind in the OS market on all phones.

Now, have things changed in 2010?

Worldwide Mobile Sales Market Share - 2010 Q2
Worldwide Mobile Sales Market Share – 2010 Q2

The actual stats are as follows: (http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=1421013)

Company Market Share (2009) Market Share (2010)
Nokia 36.8 34.2
Samsung 19.3 20.1
LG 10.7 9
Research in Motion (RIM) 2.7 3.4
Sony Ericsson 4.7 3.4
Motorola 5.6 2.8
Apple 1.9 2.7
HTC 0.9 1.8
ZTE 1.3 1.7
G’Five 0 1.6
Others 16.1 19.3

So it’s looking like the Smartphone era isn’t quite there yet, but the trend is a slow shift towards Smartphones – with Apple moving from 1.9 to 2.7 and HTC moving from 0.9 to 1.8 respectively.

What about Operating Systems?  Well, things are changing and Android looks like its gaining access pretty quickly by some of the above brands jumping ship from Symbian to Android.  Samsung with 20.1% of the market share has just decided to part ways with Symbian and move to the Google Android Platform.  Very exciting stuff for us Java developers out there.  Added to that, LG has decided not to work on any new OS’s to compete with the Smartphone market and is focusing on Windows Mobile and Google Android.  So for us Google and Java lovers, let’s hope they bet on the Google Android platform more than Windows Mobile – though there is a stir happening with Windows Mobile out there with the launch of the Windows Phone 7.  Finally, Motorola, has also decided to adopt the Google Android platform for it’s phones.

So the landscape is changing, the Smartphone market, which most developers write they’re all exciting feature rich applications for businesses is changing faster than you can learn new languages.  However, the Java programming, with its usage on Android and Blackberry is really becoming a big hit with end users and developers alike.

However, on mobile operating system sales, Symbian is still the major player with the shift to Android taking a little longer, but it’s happening – Gartner, a leading information technology research firm has predicted that by 2014, Google Android will have a percentage share of 29.6% with Symbian having a 30% share.

What does that mean for businesses out there?  Well for the meantime, if you’re targeting all mobile phones, Symbian and Android are the way to go.  However, if you’re targeting Smartphones, then you’ve got to aim for Symbian, Blackberry, iPhone and Android phones for the foreseeable future.

Which one do you aim for?  Well the stats are all based on global figures and not local figures.  Wait for my next blog post where I’ll collect some stats for some countries of interest out there with the hope of including Egypt, the US, Europe and the Middle East regions.

References: