Mobile phones in society

Mobile phones in society

Main article: Mobile telephony

Market share

Quantity Market Shares by Gartner (New Sales)
BRAND			Percent
Nokia 2009			36.4%
Nokia 2010			28.9%
Samsung 2009			19.5%
Samsung 2010			17.6%
LG Electronics 2009			10.1%
LG Electronics 2010			7.1%
Research In Motion 2009			2.8%
Research In Motion 2010			3.0%
Apple 2009			2.1%
Apple 2010			2.9%
Others-1 2009			12.6%
Others-1 2010			9.8%
Others-2 2009			16.5%
Others-2 2010			30.6%
Note: Others-1 consist of Sony Ericsson, Motorola, ZTE, HTC and Huawei.

Mobile phone subscribers per 100 inhabitants 1997–2007

The world's largest individual mobile operator by subscribers is China Mobile with over 500 million mobile phone subscribers.^[37] Over 50 mobile operators have over 10 million subscribers each, and over 150 mobile operators have at least one million subscribers by the end of 2009 (source wireless intelligence). In February 2010, there were 4.6 billion mobile phone subscribers, a number that is estimated to grow.^[38]
Competitive forces emerged in the Asia Pacific (excluding Japan) region at Q3 2010 to the detriment of market leader Nokia. Brands such as Micromax, Nexian, and i-Mobile chipped away at Nokia's market share plus Android powered smartphones also gained momentum across the region at the cost of Nokia.
Based on IDC India, Nokia's market share dropped significantly to 36 percent in the second quarter, from 56.8 percent in the same quarter last year and further drop to 31.5 percent in the third quarter, reflecting the growing share of Chinese and Indian vendors of low-end mobile phones.^[39]
Based on IDC in the last quarter of 2010, RIM has been knocked out from the top five list global mobile phone sellers. The number one rank is still Nokia followed by Samsung, LG Electronics, ZTE and Apple. For the first time Chinese ZTE is among the top five list and mainly make of lower cost phones.^[40]
For the year of 2010, Sony Ericsson and Motorola are out from the top of five list and have been replaced by LG Electronics and Apple. Significant increase from 16.5 percent to 30.6 percent has been done by many small not yet recognized brands (some of them are new brands) – Others-2. Total sales in 2010 to end users were 1.6 billion units or increase by 31.8 percent from the year of 2009.^[41]
At April 6, 2011 market capitalization of HTC surpassed Nokia with $33.8 billion over $33.4 billion respectively. The credit agency was also downgraded Nokia's debt from A2 to A3.^[42]
Top Five Mobile Phone Market Share

Source	Date	Nokia	SAMSUNG	LG	Apple	ZTE	Others	References
IDC	Q1/2011	29.2%	18.8%	6.6%	5.0%	4.1%	36.3%	[43]

• Source: IDC Worlwide Mobile Phone Trackers, April 28, 2011
• Note: Vendor shipments are branded shipments and exclude OEM sales for all vendors

By year-over-year at Q1, Nokia dropped significantly, but Apple rose significantly, while Others still rose and achieved more than a third of market share. Vendors shipped 371.8 million units in Q1 2011 compared to 310.5 million units in Q1 2010 or growing by 19.8 percent.