We use our SpecTRAX online database to indicate popular smartphones. We found that in the first half of 2012 smartphones from Nokia and RIM joined those from Apple and Samsung as most widely available.

The complete top 20 list of global smartphones ranked according to their shelf-share are shown below.

Samsung pipped Apple to the top spot with the Galaxy S II i9100 (16GB), closely followed by Apple’s iPhone 4S 16 GB.  Impressively the Galaxy SII is available from every network operator and retail channel analyzed by the SpecTRAX team.

Our report also summarizes the key specifications of the top 20 smartphones including display size, camera resolution, processor speed and operating systems.

Over 50% of devices profiled were Android; however iOS, Windows Phone, Blackberry OS and Symbian all held their ground in the top 20 smartphone list.

The key finds of the report include;

• Samsung’s Galaxy S II i9100 (16 GB) shows universal availability (only absent from the iStore shelves); the Apple iPhone 4S 16 GB comes in a close second.
• Nokia’s Lumia 800 gained traction early in its lifecycle being available through 77% of global channels just months after launch;  beating Samsung’s heavily publicised Galaxy S III i9300 16 GB launched in Q2 2012.
• HTC’s One X quad-core device (launched at MWC in February 2012) came in 12th place showing across 2/3 of shelves; an impressive positioning for this ultra-high-end product.
• The HTC Wildfire S and RIM Blackberry Curve 2 8520 entry level smartphones continue to be available from more than 60% of channels despite their age.

Samsung has the most devices in the ranking with five smartphones in the top 10 by shelf-share.  When the list is expanded to the top 20 widely available smartphones then devices from Sony, HTC and Motorola feature as popular in network operators product portfolios.

The data in the SpecTRAX online database is constantly updated and customers use it to track global and regional markets in terms of the popularity of handset and the associated specifications of those devices. This is particularly powerful information for product managers and development teams.
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SpecTRAX, a comparison tool from Strategy Analytics, records the specifications of new cellphone handsets and tablets as they are announced; tracking availability through over 300 carrier and retail channels. 

Click here to try the SpecTRAX for yourself
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Alternatively CONTACT THE TEAM to arrange a SpecTRAX demo.

Steve Entwistle

Clients can access the full details in the report “Results Are In: Samsung’s Galaxy S II was the most widely-available device in 1H 2012” ranking.

SpecTRAX contains detailed spec analysis for over 13,000 handsets including mobile phones, tablets and 2100 smartphones to date. The latest complimentary SpecTRAX insight The Smartphone Shift tracks product annoucements since Q1 2010 to Q1 2012 and demonstrates an interesting trend in product type annoucements and the evolution of individual OEM portfolios. The impact of trades shows such as CES and MWC on Q1 annoucements each year are also discussed.

Smartphone and tablet announcements are on the up, whereas mobile phones (untargeted feature phones and mobile voice) annoucements have fallen significantly since their peak in 2010, and are now the remit of budget manufaturers. Smartphones and tablets share common technologies and have similar developmental pathways which result in two products for the price of one.

Interestingly, larger OEMs such as Samsung now show a clear preference for smartphones and tablets over mobile phones. The mobile phone appears to have settled into a niche for new OEMs gaining traction in developing countries, but for how long?

SpecTRAX is a tactical database which tracks detailed handset specifications for smartphones, mobile phones, tablets and USB dongles. Currently there are over 13,000 unique models listed in the database. If you want to try the SpecTRAX database for yourself, just click HERE or contact the team to arrange a SpecTRAX demo.

We've recently completed a 'market insight' entitled:  

In their choice of smartphones, consumers look closely at the specifications of certain key components while bearing in mind their likely pricing.  So what are those particular components, their specifications and their pricing? 

Getting to the bottom of this, we analysed close on 100 smartphones using the massed data from our SpecTRAX and PriceTRAX databases which revealed strong linear trends between handset specification and smartphone tariffs.  If the relationship is linear, there is the basis for reliably predicting smartphone pricing - and with this knowledge, there will be opportunities such as targeting gaps in the market with new products.

Understanding product pricing is therefore powerful knowledge and you can read how we reached our conclusions by clicking here.

If you would like to learn more about SpecTRAX or PriceTRAX, just click their names.

Ref: E62

Despite market share trends, network operators are still backing Nokia.  The simple fact is that Mobile Network Operators need week-by-week to stock their shelves with the most popular handsets, and when it comes to smartphones, the majority are voting for Nokia with Apple a very close second.

How do we know this?…. because we closely track the portfolios of 140 mobile network operators in 30 countries worldwide using SpecTRAX*, Strategy Analytics' mobile handset tracking tool.

The detail of the shelf-share tussle between Nokia's N8 handset and Apple's iPhone 4 (plus which other handsets are chasing those leaders) is contained in Stuart Robinson's in-depth analysis in his latest 'Insight'.  Read this in full by clicking HERE.

If you want to find out more about SpecTRAX, just click here.