According to our Wireless Smartphone Strategies (WSS) service, global smartphone industry revenues rose +38% annually during Q3 2012. Apple led the pack in the premium category of smartphones, while Samsung is forging a solid lead in the remaining segments, while narrowing the gap with Apple in premium tier. This published report, available to clients, provides quarterly global smartphone shipment, ASP, and wholesale revenue metrics for nine major vendors from Q1 2011 to Q3 2012. Global smartphone vendor marketshare by price-tier, and global revenue-share tracking by price-tier, for all nine vendors is also included.

According to our Wireless Smartphone Strategies (WSS) service, RIM’s global smartphone shipments declined by -37% annually in Q3 2012. While competition from Samsung and others was as great as ever, the rate of decline of several key financial metrics at RIM slowed for the first time in almost two years. Our initial trial of RIM’s critical new operating system -- BlackBerry 10 -- has been cautiously positive. Has RIM stabilized? More analysis can be downloaded by clients here.

According to our Wireless Smartphone Strategies (WSS) service, HTC's global smartphone shipments declined by -38% annually during Q3 2012. Samsung, Sony, Huawei, ZTE and others have been piling competitive pressure on the Taiwanese vendor. We estimate HTC’s smartphone wholesale (trade) ASP tumbled below US$300 for the first time in recent history during the quarter. The vendor’s worldwide average selling price fell sharply, as it cut prices to boost volumes. More analysis of HTC and its outlook can be downloaded by clients here.

AT&T announced launch availability and pricing of their latest offering Lumia 920 & Lumia 820 with revamped Windows Phone 8 platform enabling cutting edge specs. The smartphone market in the important North America market has so far been a two-horse race and things might change moving forward.

Our Wireless Smartphone strategies (WSS) service believes at $99 price point, Lumia 920 which with its cutting-edge hardware and software capabilities could be easily priced at $200+ subsidized retail. However, now it will hit a very sweet spot in terms of price for the consumers, a superb “value for money” any smartphone can offer this holiday season. Similarly, Lumia 820 is also a solid mid—range offering at $49 price-point.  To put into context, AT&T still has more than 35% of subscribers on feature phones as well as millions of existing potential smartphone owners which may be intending to switch or upgrade to fresher advanced smartphones such as Lumia 920 and $99 & $49 are great first time deals to target those subscribers over next 3-4 months. But this also means that with this pricing Nokia has lowered their pricing barrier for flagship devices, so next iteration should have something more cutting edge so Nokia can price it at levels where Nokia can make more profits and also roll-out a multi-carrier launch such as Galaxy SIII.

Additionally, with aggressive collaborative marketing and promotion from Nokia, AT&T as well as from Microsoft on Windows Phone 8 should help cement Nokia’s position in US and get Nokia phones in as many hands as possible. Furthermore, we believe the flagship exclusive is a brilliant move from Nokia in terms of long-term benefits with focused marketing, aggressive pricing and Lumia brand creation in USA. It might though hurt Nokia’s TAM in important US market for short term but gaining presence at three out of top four tier-1 carriers with Lumia devices is commendable and should pacify investors.

Though on a related note, AT&T also announced HTC 8X Windows Phone 8 pricing which is not as aggressively priced as Lumia 920, as HTC lost the AT&T exclusivity spot to Nokia's flagship and instead went for a multi-carrier launch and might hirt vendor's mindshare.

According to our Wireless Smartphone Strategies (WSS) service, global smartphone shipments grew +40% annually in Q3 2012. Sony, Samsung, Apple, LG and Lenovo were among the star performers. Sony edged up to its highest ranking for years this quarter. Its upgraded Xperia range is proving popular in multiple countries. This published report, available to clients, details smartphone shipments and marketshare for the world's top 17 vendors, including Sony Mobile, across North America, Central & Latin America, Western Europe, Central & Eastern Europe, Asia Pacific and Africa Middle East from 2007 to 2012.

According to our Wireless Smartphone Strategies (WSS) service, Apple shipped 27 million smartphones worldwide in Q3 2012, up a healthy +57% from a year earlier. A major contributor to this growth was the launch of new iPhone 5, which started shipping in the final weeks of the quarter. Apple has recently begun expanding its distribution presence in India, and gains are possible next year in this important country. India will soon be the world's third largest smartphone market by volume. Apple has tiny share in India and there is scope for growth. More details can be viewed by clients in this published report.

Strategy Analytics Wireless Smartphone Strategies (WSS) services just released the 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 report tracks global smartphone operating system shipments and market share on a quarterly basis from 2009 to Q3 2012.

According to our Wireless Smartphone Strategies (WSS) service, smartphone shipments in North America grew 15% year-on-year during the third quarter of 2012. Android lost three points of share and it is approaching a peak in the US market. Apple gained 14 points of marketshare and led in volume growth. Meanwhile, BlackBerry continued to struggle and Microsoft experienced a pre-update lull. This published report contains quarterly smartphone vendor and OS shipments and marketshare for the top 9 vendors and top 5 platforms in the USA and Canada from 2007 to Q3 2012.