By Luanne Teoh on 06-10-2011

Luanne Teoh

June 10, 2011

Our recent post on smartphones taking over the world shows a clear indication that smartphone sales are not going to slow down anytime soon. In fact, exponential and explosive growth of smartphones are expected in the next few years.

According to Kantar Worldpanel (June 2011), Taiwanese phone manufacturer HTC is now the leading hardware manufacturer in the U.S. It accounted for 35% of U.S. Android sales, beating out Motorola and Samsung, which account for 29% and 18% respectively. HTC  posted its Q1 2011 earnings, reporting 9.7 million units shipped, a 192 % year-over-year increase, and revenues of $3.63 billion, a 174% year-over-year increase.

The success of HTC is unsurprising as it beat out Motorola whose primary focus was on the Droid series carried by Verizon exclusively. HTC on the other hand has leveraged itself through most of the other major domestic mobile carriers. The brilliance of HTC devices may be in its pricing  strategy apart from hardware functionality. 68% of its devices sold for less than $150 compared to Motorola’s. This in itself opens it up to a larger market share.

Samsung on the other hand has taken over from Nokia as the #1 hardware manufacturer in Europe by securing a 29% market share, an increase in 5% while Nokia’s market share fell 10%.

Regardless of hardware, Android is definitely the market leader in both U.S and Europe. There is even speculation that HTC may even surpass Apple as the top smartphone vendor in the U.S. While this remains to be seen, there is no larger or more important mobile operating system on the market right now than Android.

Infographic courtesy of Nielsen (May 2011) of US Smartphone market share.

Chart courtesy of Gartner (May 2011)

About Luanne Teoh

Luanne is a senior correspondent for BizTechDay focused on Small Business Tech, Mobile and China based in San Francisco. In the last 17 years, she has helped launch start-ups and turned around failing operations. Her international work experience include both public and private corporations in Southeast Asia, Australia and North America. She has previously worked for Oracle Corporation, SonyBMG Music, Universal Music, Catcha Media and SOH Inc. Apart from a keen interest in technology, Luanne is also and avid explorer of the globe, cultures and people.

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