Boston, MA - January 24, 2013 ? According to the latest research from Strategy Analytics, global smartphone shipments grew 43 percent annually to reach a record 700 million units in 2012. Samsung was the star performer, capturing 30 percent marketshare worldwide and extending its lead over Apple and Nokia.

Neil Shah, Senior Analyst at Strategy Analytics, said, ?Global smartphone shipments grew 38 percent annually from 157.0 million units in Q4 2011 to 217.0 million in Q4 2012. Global smartphone shipments for the full year reached a record 700.1 million units in 2012, increasing robustly from 490.5 million units in 2011. Global shipment growth slowed from 64 percent in 2011 to 43 percent in 2012 as penetration of smartphones began to mature in developed regions such as North America and Western Europe.?

Neil Mawston, Executive Director at Strategy Analytics, added, ?Samsung shipped a record 213.0 million smartphones worldwide and captured 30 percent marketshare in 2012. This was the largest number of units ever shipped by a smartphone vendor in a single year, beating Nokia?s previous all-time record when it shipped 100.1 million units during 2010. Despite tough competition in stores and courtrooms, Samsung continued to deliver numerous hit models, from the high-end Galaxy Note2 phablet to the mass-market Galaxy Y. Apple grew a healthy 46 percent annually and shipped 135.8 million smartphones worldwide for 19 percent marketshare in 2012, broadly flat from the 19 percent level recorded in 2011. Apple had a strong year in developed regions like North America, but this was offset partly by its limited presence in high-growth emerging markets such as Africa.?

Linda Sui, Analyst at Strategy Analytics, added, ?Samsung and Apple together accounted for half of all smartphones shipped worldwide in 2012. Large marketing budgets, extensive distribution channels and attractive product portfolios have enabled Samsung and Apple to tighten their grip on the smartphone industry. The growth of Samsung and Apple has continued to impact Nokia. Nokia retained its position as the world?s third largest smartphone vendor for full-year 2012, but its global marketshare has dropped sharply from 16 percent to five percent during the past year. Nokia?s Windows Phone portfolio has improved significantly in recent months, with new models like the Lumia 920, but we believe the vendor still lacks a true hero model in its range that can be considered an Apple iPhone or Samsung S3 killer.?

Exhibit 1: Global Smartphone Vendor Shipments and Market Share in Q4 2012 [1]

[1] Numbers are rounded.

The full report, Global Smartphone Shipments Reach a Record 700 Million Units in 2012, is published by the Strategy Analytics Wireless Smartphone Strategies (WSS) service, details of which can be found here: http://tinyurl.com/9djv7u8.

About Strategy Analytics:

Strategy Analytics is a global, independent research and consulting firm. The company is headquartered in Boston, USA, with offices in the UK, France, Germany, Japan, South Korea, India and China. Visit www.strategyanalytics.com for more information.

Americas Contact:

Neil Shah / +1 617 614 0727 / NShah@strategyanalytics.com

EMEA Contact:

Neil Mawston / +44 1908 423 628 / NMawston@strategyanalytics.com

Asia Contact:

Linda Sui / +1 617 614 0734 / LSui@strategyanalytics.com

Our Wireless Smartphone Strategies (WSS) service just released its global smartphone OS market share by region : Q3 2012 report.

Global smartphone shipments grew +39% annually in Q3 2012. Android was the star platform during the quarter, crushing almost all rivals except Apple iOS. Android is peaking in the North America market, but all other regions are approaching record marketshare levels. Blackberry OS, Symbian and Bada continued to fade, while Microsoft remains niche for now.

This published report tracks global smartphone operating system shipments and market share on a quarterly basis from 2009 to Q3 2012.

Our Wireless Device Strategies (WDS) service is hosting a public webinar on China, at 100pm New York-time on Wednesday 17th October, 2012. Please register here.
China is the world's largest handset and smartphone market by volume, as well as the second-largest market by value. Players in the mobile space cannot afford to ignore China, a market with plenty of opportunities and challenges ahead. This webinar will focus on why we believe China is such an important handset market, who is winning and who is losing, where the rising opportunities are, as well as implications on how other developing and developed markets will follow China's footsteps. The agenda for the webinar is as follows.

• Introduction
• Why is China so Important Today?
• Who is Leading in China: Megavendors vs. Local Players?
• Operators' Rising Role in China's 3G Handset Market (e.g. subsidies)
• How Big is the TD-LTE Opportunity?
• Smartphone OS Wars: Android Forks
• Conclusions & Recommendations

Event Information:

Topic : China : The World's Largest Mobile Market

Date : 17th, October, 2012

Time : 1pm EDT / 10am PDT /6pm BST / 7pm CET / 2am (18/10/12) JST

Presenters : Linda Sui - Analyst. Wireless Device Strategies

Alexander Spektor - Associate Director, Global Wireless Practice

Click here to REGISTER for this event

China is the world's largest handset and smartphone market by volume, as well as the second-largest market by value. Players in the mobile space cannot afford to ignore China, a market with plenty of opportunities and challenges ahead. This webinar will focus on why we believe China is such an important handset market, who is winning and who is losing, where the rising opportunities are, as well as implications on how other developing and developed markets will follow China's footsteps. The agenda for the webinar is as follows.

• Introduction
• Why is China so Important Today?
• Who is Leading in China: Megavendors vs. Local Players?
• Operators' Rising Role in China's 3G Handset Market (e.g. subsidies)
• How Big is the TD-LTE Opportunity?
• Smartphone OS Wars: Android Forks
• Conclusions & Recommendations

Event Information:

Topic : China : The World's Largest Mobile Market

Date : 17th, October, 2012

Time : 1pm EDT / 10am PDT /6pm BST / 7pm CET / 12am (18/10/12) JST

Presenters : Linda Sui - Analyst. Wireless Device Strategies

                  Alexander Spektor - Associate Director, Global Wireless Practice

Click here to REGISTER for this event

Nokia today announced CDMA version of the Lumia phone, 800c exclusively for China market to be available in Q2 2012. It features a 3.7-inch touchscreen and 1.4G processor with full retail price of RMB 3,599 (US$ 571). It is reportedly the cost-effectively 610c will be following in next few months.

According to our Handset Country Share Tracker (CST) service, Nokia has been suffering from the faster-than-expected Symbian waning in China, its smartphone marketshare dropped to 18% in Q4 2011 from 54% at the beginning of the year. Will CDMA Lumia phones help Nokia regain the lost momentum in China, one of the largest smartphones worldwide?

First, its decent ID design and Nokia brand legacy would help Nokia switch some of previous loyal Symbian users towards Lumia phones; secondly, Nokia reentering CDMA market by working with China Telecom will diversify its product portfolio and enrich product offerings; thirdly, localized applications and initiatives to build up local developer community for Windows phone OS indicate Nokia and Windows ambitious to further build foothold in this fast-growing market.

However, the premium pricing and mid-tier hardware features would hinder demand from price-sensitive buyers, especially young people who are the main targeting segment of China Telecom TianyiFlyyoung sub brand. Moreover, the newly availability of CDMA iPhone at China Telecom would put Lumia phone into neck-to-neck competition with the star model in premium band. I would doubt China Telecom would be able to provide attractive subsidies to Nokia Lumia phones given the financial burden from the commitment on CDMA iPhones. Final, it may takes time to educate Chinese people to use Windows phone OS.

It remains to be seen how Windows Lumia phone will help Nokia regain the losing ground in China smartphone market. If I were a China Telecom subscriber, think twice before going for it.

- Linda Sui

Global touchscreen handset shipments surged 70% in 2011. The touchphone sub-segment is growing 6 times faster than the overall market. It is undoubtedly a fast-growing sub-category.

Having initially gained momentum in high-end smartphones, touchscreens are spreading to the mass-market in developed and developing countries worldwide. Touchscreens are rippling across multiple tiers of phones, with displays ranging from 2 to 5 inches diagonally. Popular models currently include the Samsung Galaxy S2 superphone (4.3 inches), Apple iPhone 4S (3.5 inches) and Nokia Asha series Touch and Type (2.4 inches). We believe first-time touchscreen handset buyers are favoring relatively smaller displays, while multi-time buyers with previous experience are upgrading to larger screens for improved usability. In particular, we highlight that 5-inch models, such as the Samsung Galaxy Note, are gaining increasing traction among some affluent users as they look for enhanced Internet and video experiences. We expect the 5-inch touchphone category to grow at a healthy clip in the next two years.

Samsung maintained the No.1 position in touchscreen handsets last year. Apple is second, despite popularizing the sub-category back in 2007. Meanwhile, Chinese vendors Huawei and ZTE continue to evolve across the touchphone market, thanks to their growing presence in the Android ecosystem.

The United States is currently the world's most important touchscreen handset market, with most of the key brands and trends emerging from that country during recent years, including Apple iOS and Android. China continues to expand as a popular country for 3G touchphones. A rising number of local Chinese brands, such as Lenovo and Coolpad, have been pushing into the touchscreen handset category and generating higher volumes. Furthermore, Japan has witnessed strong growth of touchscreen volumes recently, indicated by the significant expansion of Apple, which is now the country?s second largest vendor.

- Linda Sui

During the Q4 2010 conference call, Apple highlighted the impressive performance in Greater China (including mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan) over the past quarter, with the sales of US$2.6 billion, up 400% YoY, contributing to nearly 10% value share. The 4 Apple Stores located in mainland China ranked at the top in terms of traffic and revenue among all 323 stores worldwide, according to the company. Apparently Apple is bearing fruit from the most populated market in the world. According to our Handset Country Share Tracker (HCST) service, China represents over 20% of total legitimate iPhone sales in APAC in 2010. Further considering the strong sales of shuihuo iPhone in China (which refer to smuggled iPhones, usually through Hong Kong) total iPhone sales in China would hit a sizeable share.

As a fashion icon to attract high-end users, iPhone has become the new battlefield for China's operators:

-As it happens elsewhere in the world, China Unicom heavily subsidizes the iPhone.  However, this also puts a financial burden on the operator, as indicated by the increasing 3G capex.

-China Mobile has been taking aggressive actions to attract iPhone users by providing a SIM card cutting service, by which China Mobile can cut regular SIM card to match the micro SIM card that is used for iPhone, making iPhone users be able to keep the same phone number. Moreover, it has announced plans to accelerate its TD-LTE roll out. Bypassing TD-SCDMA, China Mobile will have an LTE network ready before rivals to open the door for future LTE iPhone.

-The availability of the new CDMA iPhone adds fuel on this battle. We expect it to become available with China Telecom mid this year.

In addition to the operator channel, the vendor also plans to open more Apple Stores in China, bringing the total number to over 20 by this year. Moreover, iPhone is also available in selected open channel partners, such as Suning, one of the top electronic chain stores in China.

Improved channel reach, migration towards iPhone 4 and subsidized price all contribute to the record sales of iPhone in China over the past quarter. The possible CDMA iPhone with China Telecom would fuel further strong growth room for the coming year. Although counterfeit "iPhones" that have mushroomed in the grey market will continue to negatively impact sales, legitimate growth should be able to offset the loss to grey market, so we will not be surprised to see another Apple sales record in China in 2011.

- Linda Sui

Global Smartphone Forecast by Region

Vendor Market Share by Country: Q3 2010