Nokia is no longer among the world’s top five. In smartphone sales, that is. It has been unceremoniously lumped in along with “Others,” beaten by Samsung, Apple, Research in Motion, China’s ZTE and Taiwan’s HTC.
Don’t worry, Nokia-nites. Nokia is still number two when it comes to overall phone sales worldwide (after Samsung). It’s just that it’s kind of in a slump when it comes to the smartphone market. Unfortunately, that’s bad because this is the high-value market where Nokia really wants to be.
Here are the top five smartphone vendors worldwide, according to IDC:
Source: IDC Worldwide Mobile Phone Tracker for Oct. 25, 2012
This is of course bad news also for Microsoft, which is generally riding on Nokia for the success of its Windows Phone operating system. If Nokia doesn’t get a second wind soon, we may yet see Microsoft taking matters into its own hands and (gasp!) making its own smartphones!
The other surprise is that RIM beat out Nokia. There’s still some muster in this old workhorse after all. Let’s just hope that they up the ante when their much-awaited BlackBerry 10 operating system finally arrives.
