Market research firm IDC reports that worldwide smartphone shipments beat those of feature phones for the first time ever in the first quarter of 2013. Apple’s iPhone didn’t fare as well, however, as its marketshare dipped to below 20%.
Despite reporting a 6.6 percent year-over-year boost in sales for the first quarter of 2013, Apple’s iPhone growth wasn’t strong enough to fend off competing smartphone makers from gobbling up marketshare, data from the IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker shows.
On its Q2 2013 earnings call, Apple reported iPhone sales of 37.4 million units, up from 35.1 million in the year prior, translating to a 6.6 percent rate of growth. IDC says the last time Apple reported year-over-year growth in the single digits was the 3rd quarter of 2009.
IDC shows Apple’s Q1 2013 worldwide share of the smartphone market dropping to 17.3%, down from 23% in the same period in 2012. That was good for second place behind rival Samsung. The iPhone maker was the only top five smartphone manufacturer to see it’s share contract in the period.
When looking at total mobile phone shipments, Apple did a little better, as the iPhone’s share grew a bit, to 8.9%, up from 8.7% in 2012.
Overall smartphone shipments hit 216.2 million units in the first quarter, or 51.6% of the 418.6 million total phones shipped.
