Apple has for long been the lord of the media player market with its family of iPods and it has since then taken the design concept to the mobile phone market with its iPhone. That Apple would be able to gain such a big share of the mobile phone market so fast was not expected. According to a market survey by Charlie Wolf at Needham, Apple grabbed 16.6% of the global smartphone market in Q3 2008.
The only actor with a bigger cut is Nokia with 43.6% who is also the biggest loser. Nokia had 63.3% of the smartphone market one year ago and has lost nearly 20 percentages since then, the majority to Apple. Charlie Wolf even claims that Apple’s introduction of iPhone 3G is what has kept the smartphone market from losing momentum.
“Apple’s relaunch has been strong enough that it ultimately masked a potential stall in the overall smartphone market. While the rate of growth was flat between spring and summer at 28.6 percent, Apple’s presence has been the “only reason” the market didn’t slow down significantly, Wolf says.”
