Based on the three-month-average ending November 2012, the study shows marketshare growth of the various smartphone manufacturers across the EU5-markets (Germany, UK, France, Spain and Italy). “Competition between the systems is increasing from year to year. The strategies that these major players in the mobile sector will be using to win the battle can be seen at the 8th M-Days, Congress and Fair for Mobile Solutions and Technologies, on 5th and 6th February 2013”, explains Klaus Reinke, Senior Vice President of Messe Frankfurt Exhibition.
According to comScore, Samsung is the new star amongst smartphone manufacturers in the EU5-markets capturing 31 percent of the smartphone market in the countries surveyed in November 2012. In Germany, Samsung’s marketshare rose to 32 percent, a growth of 151 percent since November 2011. In Great Britain, their marketshare amongst the smartphone audience increased at an even greater rate of 166 percent over the year, however, at 25 percent marketshare they are still behind Apple. Apple’s dominance of the market is declining with iPhones accounting for 28 percent of all smartphones in November 2012. In the UK, Apple’s growth rate is in line with the market average of 33 percent.
When it comes to operating systems, Google leads the pack in the EU5-markets, specifically in the U.K. and Germany. In Germany the number of smartphones using Google’s Android operating system rose by 138 over the year to nearly 52 percent in November 2012. For the EU5-markets as a whole, Google increased its share to 48 percent of the smartphone audience, an increase of 115 percent compared to last year. Although Apple grew by 33 percent (in line with the average growth rate of the market), it only holds 21 percent share of the EU5-markets. Research in Motion (RIM) and Microsoft captured around eight percent and five percent of the EU5 market share respectively, with increases of nine percent and 16 percent respectively. The big loser is Nokia’s Symbian. Although the operating system still holds 16 percent of the market, their share of the smartphone audience has declined by 32 percent over the year. In Europe, Android and iOS are the clear winners.