HTC Becomes Highest Shipping Smartphone Vendor In the US

An anonymous reader writes with an excerpt from an article in BGR: "Samsung blew past Apple and Nokia in the third quarter to become the No. 1 smartphone vendor in the world, but another emerging smartphone vendor stole the top spot in the U.S. according to a new report. Market research firm Canalys on Monday released country-level smartphone shipment estimates and according to its figures, HTC shipped 5.7 million own-brand smartphones and another 700,000 T-Mobile-branded handsets last quarter to take the top spot with 6.4 million total devices shipped."

Comments

Figures provided by analysts, not the companies

[jmcbain]

I don't understand the relevance of these estimates of Samsung and HTC shipment figures, for three reasons:

1. The shipment estimates are made by analyst companies, not by Samsung or HTC themselves. Samsung, as of last summer, has stopped providing shipment numbers of its smartphones and tablets. Then these other companies (Strategy Analytics and Canalys) step in with their own estimates that are dodgy at best. How do they get their numbers? If Samsung is not providing their shipment numbers, why should we believe a third party?

2. One shipment to a vendor (e.g. Best Buy) does not map to one sale to an end consumer. A vendor can always return the item back to the seller.

3. What is counted as a smartphone? Phone manufacturers are cramming more smartphone features into low-end devices; remember that even the most basic Symbian phone was counted by Nokia as a smartphone, and look how those ostensibly great sales turned out for Nokia.

Note that Apple always lists its sales in its SEC statements. And these are sales figures to the end consumer, not shipments.

Re:Figures provided by analysts, not the companies

[andydread]

FTFA

"After a slow start in 2010, AT&T has over-delivered on the number of Android devices it promised to launch in 2011, including the Impulse 4G, supplied by Huawei but AT&T-branded, sold at an aggressive $30 with a contract to target first-time smart phone buyers. Android holds nearly 70% of the platform share in the United States, compared with 57% worldwide."

Then there is the massive Chinese market that's coming online.

"The Chinese smart phone market is seeing explosive growth, not least from domestic vendors Huawei and ZTE,’ said Shanghai-based Canalys Research Director for China, Nicole Peng. ‘Both vendors are delivering good-quality, attractive smart phones on the Android platform for both the domestic and foreign markets, and their aggressive pricing strategies are enabling them to ship large volumes. They will continue to be an increasingly disruptive force in the global market in the coming quarters"

Then there are the Andoid smart watches and who knows what else around the corner. That's the real news. Android looks like it's set to steamroll.

Re:Figures provided by analysts, not the companies

[BasilBrush]

Then these other companies (Strategy Analytics and Canalys) step in with their own estimates that are dodgy at best.

It's a mistake to group these two companies together. I too am suspicious of Strategy Analytics. I'm unaware of any history or reputation they have in this field. Canalys on the other hand has been putting out mobile phone market share studies every quarter for about 10 years. They are a reputable research company, and have charted the highs and lows of many manufacturers and mobile OSs. I've never known them of having unrealistic estimates by anyone in the industry.
There's also Gartner that do them, and they are credible too, though I'd suggest Canalys is better.

3. What is counted as a smartphone? Phone manufacturers are cramming more smartphone features into low-end devices; remember that even the most basic Symbian phone was counted by Nokia as a smartphone, and look how those ostensibly great sales turned out for Nokia.

There's much confusion about what constitutes a smartphone. You rarely see it defined anywhere. But it's essentially this:

1) A smartphone is a phone which can run third party apps, written with the same APIs as the built in apps. Such that third party apps can be indistinguishable from the built in apps. They are "first class citizens".

2) A featurephone is a phone which can run "applets". WAP, J2ME and such like. They are add on apps, but they limited compared to the built in apps.

3) A dumb phone is a phone which doesn't qualify for either of the above.

The very first Symbian phone, the Ericsson R380, wasn't a smartphone. I don't recall if it qualified as a feature phone or just a dumb phone. But it wasn't a smartphone. Other than that, every Symbian phone was a smartphone. Just because it was 10 years ago and the apps were less flashy doesn't mean they weren't smartphones.

Re:Figures provided by analysts, not the companies

[PopeRatzo]

I don't understand the relevance of these estimates of Samsung and HTC shipment figures, for three reasons:

Don't worry, nobody's going to take away your iPhone just because some other phone manufacturers are having some success.

Believe it or not, the smartphone market is not middle-earth and it's not the forces of good against the forces of evil. If a day comes, and it may never come, when there is a phone that sells better than the iPhone, it will not reduce one bit the meaning of your long devotion. You will still receive your reward in the next life when you meet Steve Jobs at the pearly gates and blow him.

Re:Figures provided by analysts, not the companies

[rtb61]

That's it, keep bragging about how Apple is screwing over it's customers it sure to win them more. Face it the iPhone is yesterday's phone and an Android phone is today's phone, tomorrow's phone now that another question. Personally I think the digital home manufacturer is going to win that, you know, throw in free phone/tablet combination with big screen TV and existing same brand appliances count fridge, washing machine, stove, microwave and new air-conditioning means you'll get next seasons phone/tablet combination also thrown in for free. Now add in branded solar panels, back up batteries and inverter and you get the idea.

Cue the shipped vs. sold debate

[Algae_94]

I'm sure lots of people will bring up the fact that shipped phones does not have a 1-to-1 correlation to sold phones. They may not sell and be returned to the manufacturer. That being said, how many times could HTC or Samsung or any other company get away with over shipping devices that don't sell before retailers stop ordering as many devices? I seriously doubt HTC is shipping vast quantities of phones in these numbers that didn't sell. This isn't a failing product like the TouchPad prior to the fire-sale, or the Playbook. These are just commodity smart phones.

Whether you love or hate Apple, the important point to debate is not exactly who is king of the hill in smart phones, but the fact that it is not just one player that rules it all any more. Anything can change as time goes on and no major handset manufacturer can let up or they might fall hopelessly behind.

Re:Cue the shipped vs. sold debate

[jrumney]

Apple can only give "units sold" figures for phones sold from the Apple store. That might work for the US market, but in many other countries they are doing the same as every other vendor and quoting figures for what they have shipped out to distributors, because those are the only figures they they can get.

Re:Cue the shipped vs. sold debate

[demonlapin]

iPhones don't work until activated with an iTunes account. They can't say "units sold" for most outlets, but since an iPhone is useless without activation, it's a pretty safe bet that they know almost exactly how many phones have been sold.

HTC are not new.....

[bleh-of-the-huns]

They have been making phones for years.. starting way back in the windows mobile days. Granted, they were mostly OEM for other brands, but they are not new.

Good old conspiracy theory.

[mjwx]

And these are sales figures to the end consumer, but mostly shipments.

Fixed that for you.

Apple sells most of it's phones via telco's. Which means they ship through the same channels as HTC, Samsung and everyone else. In Australia Apple have to ship through Brightstor to sell on most Telco's as Telstra and Vodafone have exclusivity agreements with Brightstor (not sure about Optus but it would not surprise me). The situation is quite similar in Europe. So most of apple's "sales" figures are shipped figures like all other manufacturers.

Secondly, this conspiracy is a little far fetched that HTC phones are not actually selling. I've heard this channel stuffing conspiracy for over a year with the Samsung Galaxy S yet it keeps selling and we've heard nothing about millions of returns. At some point you fanboys will have to admit that Android is outselling Iphones.

Re:Good old conspiracy theory.

[UnknowingFool]

Apple sells most of it's phones via telco's. Which means they ship through the same channels as HTC, Samsung and everyone else. In Australia Apple have to ship through Brightstor to sell on most Telco's as Telstra and Vodafone have exclusivity agreements with Brightstor (not sure about Optus but it would not surprise me). The situation is quite similar in Europe. So most of apple's "sales" figures are shipped figures like all other manufacturers.

How are you sure of that? Unlike Samsung and HTC, I believe Apple has these things called retail stores as well as an online store. I know that whenever you want something Apple that is in short supply your chance of getting at an Apple store is much higher than another location. Second, even if it was "shipped" instead of "sold", when something is in short supply like most new Apple launches, shipped = sold. I don't know about you but I can't remember the last time people lined up for a Samsung Galaxy phone unless Samsung bribes them.

Re:Good old conspiracy theory.

[Cryacin]

At some point you fanboys will have to admit that Android is outselling Iphones.

Never underestimate the power of denial.

Re:Good old conspiracy theory.

[BlueScreenO'Life]

I don't know about Samsung but when the HTC Desire HD came out, the stores DID run out of stock where I lived (Western Europe for what it's worth).

Re:Good old conspiracy theory.

[maccam]

Since iPhones, whether sold in an Apple Store or via a Telco, are activated via iTunes, I would suspect that Apple has pretty accurate units-sold numbers.

Re:and yet...

[mjwx]

I've seen only 2 HTCs in the wild.

Looking around my office, 4 HTC's, 2 Samsungs, 1 Iphone (work phone that's treated like a red headed step child no-one wants).

In the US, HTC phones aren't branded as HTC, they're branded as Verizon, T-Mobile, Sprint et al. In Australia and Europe I see heaps of HTC Desire's, Desire HD's, Sensation's, Legend's and a few Desire Z's. All of these phones have different names in the US due to your woeful patent minefield.

Re:and yet...

[SmurfButcher Bob]

> I've seen only 2 HTCs in the wild.

I suspect you live in an iCave, or under an iRock.

Re:Don't forget that usage counts too

[bdenton42]

I'm curious why it would be unusable from a OS standpoint now if it were presumably usable some number of months ago when she purchased it. The feature set on the OS doesn't degrade over time.

The graphic is interesting, but Apple has the advantage of pushing OS updates directly to the devices. Android has the disadvantage of every manufacturer customizing it per vendor specification and the OS updates are pushed through those vendors. If Apple had to get AT&T approval to push iOS to the devices on their network you would see a bunch of yellow and maybe even red bars on the Apple lines too.