Smartphone Sales Up 12% In Q3

Global mobile phone sales reached 308.9 million units in the third quarter of 2009, a slight increase of 0.1 percent from the third quarter of 2008, according to a new report from Gartner.

Smartphone sales showed solid growth with more than 41 million units sold for a 12.8 percent increase from the same period last year.

"The third quarter of 2009 saw the announcement of many new mobile devices, including several Android smartphones ready for the holiday season in the fourth quarter, but hardware commoditisation and the growth in open platforms will make it harder for them to stand out," said Carolina Milanesi, research director at Gartner.

"Many devices will reach the market in time for Christmas, and mobile carriers will run incentives for consumers during the holidays. We expect sales of mobile devices in the fourth quarter of 2009 to show year-over-year growth," said Ms Milanesi.

"As many vendors and industry watchers call for a decrease in sales into the channel, our sell through data is showing that 2009 performance will be flat rather than down over 2008."

Nokia led the mobile market in Q3 with 36.7 percent of the share, followed by Samsung at 19.6 percent and LG with 10.3 percent market share.

Nokia also ranked at the top in smartphone sales with 39.3 percent of the market, followed by Blackberry maker Research in Motion with 20.8 percent and Apple with 17.1 percent.

"Smartphones continued to represent the fastest-growing segment of the mobile-devices market and we remain confident about the potential for smartphones in the fourth quarter of 2009 and in 2010," said Ms Milanesi.
 

 

Have You Read This?

>Google Launches Custom Search For Smartphones

>Buy A Blackberry From Walmart Get A $100 Gift Card

>Apple And LG Rank High In Consumer Satisfaction

 

Mobile Phone Market Shows Signs Of Improvement

The global mobile phone market saw slight growth in the third quarter, according to IDC's Worldwide Mobile Phone Tracker.

Year-on-year growth remained negative, but improved from the first half of 2009. Mobile shipments totaled 287.1 million units worldwide in Q3, down from 6 percent from the previous year, but up 5.6 percent from the second quarter.

"The mobile phone market is showing the first signs of improvement since the onset of the economic crisis," said Ramon Llamas, senior research analyst with IDC's Mobile Devices Technology and Trends team.

"During the third quarter, we saw a number of channels promoting older devices at significantly lower prices. For many, this was enough to spur demand and push volumes higher. Now that we have moved into the fourth quarter, vendors are setting the stage for further gains by launching their flagship devices to meet pent-up demand."

The North American market posted mixed results for Q3. The United States posted positive results, with mobile devices and prepaid handsets once again driving growth. The Canadian mobile phone market declined for the third straight despite double-digit mobile device growth.

Nokia took the top spot in market share with 37.8 percent, but its year-on year growth dipped 8 percent. Samsung landed in the second spot with 21 percent market share and positive year-on-year growth of 15.9 percent.

 

"Although some regions are still reeling from problems associated with the economic crisis, the third quarter served to cleanse the channel while providing the signs of stability necessary for additional improvement in the fourth quarter," said Will Stofega, research manager of IDC's Mobile Devices Technology and Trends team
 

 

 

Have You Read This?

>Apple And LG Rank High In Consumer Satisfaction

>Google Launches Custom Search For Smartphones

>Usage Of Mobile Web And Apps Doubles In 2 Years

 

Apple And LG Rank High In Consumer Satisfaction

Overall satisfaction among smartphone owners has increased significantly over time as manufacturers continue to improve their offerings, according to a new report from J.D. Power and Associates.

Satisfaction among consumer smartphone owners has increased 14 index points (on a 1,000 point scale) from just six months ago, while satisfaction among business owners has increased by 43 index points from 2008 as these devices have become more stylish, customizable and user friendly.

Among traditional mobile phone owners, overall satisfaction has declined by six index points from April 2009, which the report attributes to the awareness of advanced features available on smartphones.

In order of importance, key factors of overall satisfaction with traditional wireless handsets are operation (30%); physical design (30%); features (20%); and battery function (20%).

For consumer smartphones, key factors are ease of operation (30%); operating system (22%); features (21%); physical design (18%); and battery function (9%). For business smartphones, key factors include ease of operation (29%); operating system (23%); physical design (21%); features (16%); and battery function (11%).

Apple ranks highest among makers of smartphones used mainly for personal reasons, with a score of 811, performs well in ease of use, operating system, features and physical design. LG (776) and RIM BlackBerry (759) trail Apple in the rankings.

Among people who use their smartphones for business purposes, Apple ranks highest with a score of 803, followed by BlackBerry (724).

LG took the top spot in overall wireless customer satisfaction with traditional handsets with as core of 723, particularly for battery function, features and operation.

"Attractive rebates or discounts offered to current smartphone owners, as well as incentives given to traditional handset owners to upgrade to smartphones, are effective ways for wireless carriers to generate revenue and increase market share," said Kirk Parsons, senior director of wireless services at J.D. Power and Associates.
 

Get More Traffic from Bing’s Image Search

In a previous article, we discussed why and how to rank in image searches. The article was based on discussion from the recent Search Engine Strategies conference in San Jose. Bing's Todd Schwartz was part of that discussion, and he has now shared additional insight into Bing's image search.

Sidenote: WebProNews has just uploaded an interview with Google's R.J. Pittman, who discusses Google Image Search optimiziation.

"Behavioral data shows that consumers engage deeply in Image Search tasks, with nearly double the page views per query on average as we see in the more text-centric core search experience," says Schwartz. "Looking at the consumer research, our analyses show that images on a traditional search results page are a big driver of consumer satisfaction, especially for task related queries like buying products, catching up on celebrity gossip, or planning a trip."

"This is one reason why we are seeing images both on the main search results page and within the Image Search verticals," he adds.

A study from Microsoft found that consumers can process results with images 30% faster than results with text only. This data highlights why image search optimization should be of concern to webmasters. In theory, the more you can control your presence in relevant image results, the more traffic you are likely to get.

Schwartz shared some recommendations for image search optimization from Bing's top image developer:

- Name image files appropriately – For improved relevance, make sure that the file name describes the image appropriately.

- Alternative image text (alt text) matters – For increased optimization, make sure photos are properly described with alternative text tags, and ensure that test within any images is also

- Watch frame breaking – Sites that attempt to break frames make it more difficult for the image to display correctly within search.  Make sure you’re testing your site against the search engines.

Of course Bing is just one piece of the search market puzzle, and not the biggest piece by any stretch of the imagination, but the search engine's presence is being felt, and it is growing. If that Micosoft Yahoo deal goes through, it will grow very significantly, when Bing results start appearing in Yahoo searches. It still won't be getting Google's share, but it will be much more significant.

For more tips on being found in image searches (on both Bing and Google) read this article. For more on being found in Google's Image search as well as various other Google search engines, check this one out.