Global sales of mobiles dip 2 percent in Q1 2012, finds Gartner

Gartner, Inc. have, in their latest report thrown light on how the sales of mobile phones fared globally and it presents a rather disappointing picture. The report found that the global sales of mobile phones dipped by 2 percent in the Q1 of 2012 from Q1 of 2011 taking the number lower to 419.1 million units. The report further added that the 2 percent decline that has now hit the worldwide sales of the mobile phones seconds a previous decline in sales, which came in, in the second quarter of 2009. Quoting Anshul Gupta, principal research analyst at Gartner, the report added, “Global sales of mobile devices declined more than expected due to a slowdown in demand from the Asia/Pacific region. The first quarter, traditionally the strongest quarter for Asia – which is driven by Chinese New Year, saw a lack of new product launches from leading manufacturers, and users delayed upgrades in the hope of better smartphone deals arriving later in the year.”

The report further added that, “All vendors were impacted at different levels; however, white-box vendors seem to have suffered the most. While tier one players such as Nokia were negatively impacted on sell-in numbers (sold into retail), white-box vendors were unable to adjust production and were left with a build-up in inventory by the end of the quarter.” However, in the report, Gartner admits that they expect some of the volume of the stock to be sold off in the quarters that follow, because it was likely that in a bid to wipe out the existent stock, costs would be lowered.

Sales dipping! (Image credit: Getty Images)

In the details provided by the report, it has been revealed that Samsung Electronics emerged as the world’s top mobile handset vendor during the period of assessment. In doing so, Samsung Electronics managed to displace Nokia, who earlier held that spot, since 1998. Elaborating on Samsung’s performance in the quarter, the report highlighted that the South Korea-based company’s mobile phone sales touched 86.6 million units - increased by 25.9 percent from last year. The company also managed to claim the world’s No.1 smartphone position from Apple, by selling as many as 38 million smartphones, worldwide. Samsung’s Android-based smartphone sales in the Q1 of 2012 spoke for those of more than 40 percent of Android-based smartphone sales worldwide and reportedly, no other vendors achieved more than a 10 percent share of the market.

Quoting Annette Zimmermann, principal research analyst at Gartner, the report states, "The lower results in the first quarter of 2012 have led us to be cautious about sales for the remainder of the year. he continued roll-out of third generation (3G)-based smartphones by local and regional manufacturers such as Huawei, ZTE, Lenovo, Yulong and TCL Communication should help spur demand in China. In addition, the arrival of new products in mature markets based on new versions of the Android and Windows Phone operating systems (OSs), and the launch of the Apple iPhone 5 will help drive a stronger second half in Western Europe and North America. However, as we are starting to update our market forecast we feel a downward adjustment to our 2012 figures, in the range of 20 million units, is unavoidable."