Canalys today provided analysis of recent, record-achieving financial results issued by smart phone vendors. Leading the pack, Apple broke its own sales and financial records and broke the record for the most smart phones shipped globally in a single quarter by a single vendor.
The 37 million iPhones shipped in Q4 beat the previous record of 28.3 million devices shipped by Nokia in Q4 2010. The huge volume of iPhones also exceeded the size of the entire market of four years ago, when a total of 35.5 million smartphones shipped globally. Apple’s quarterly revenue was more than $46 billion, profit came in at more than $13 billion, and gross margin reached nearly 45 percent, which beat expectations. The company ended the quarter with almost $98 billion in cash.
“Apple’s strong performance will no doubt be a concern to its competition, which need to keep pace with Apple’s innovation, defend against its patent litigation, and deliver products that can truly compete with the iPhone," said Canalys Vice President and Principal Analyst Chris Jones. “Despite initial disappointment surrounding the lackluster new features of the iPhone 4S, the model has clearly been a triumph, and shipments benefitted from pent-up market demand."
The iPhone 3GS, first released in the summer of 2009, continues to boost shipment volumes.
“Apple noted in its investors’ call that it has been particularly successful in mainland China, though the iPhone 4S only launched there last week, again to exceptional demand," Jones added. “This kind of performance demonstrates the powerful aspirational pull the brand has achieved in markets all around the world."
Samsung announced a 13 percent year-over-year increase in revenues to more than $47 trillion and a 76 percent increase in operating profit, to 5.3 trillion. The telecommunications division, which includes its mobile phone and tablet business, also had record earnings and profits. Samsung does not publicly announce its shipment numbers, but revealed quarterly growth in smart phones of approximately 30 percent. The vendor also said that its mobile phone shipments increased by more than 10 percent. The smartphone figures include devices shipped under the Google and T-Mobile brands.
Nokia posted a slight annual decline in its mobile phone volumes (excluding smartphones) at almost 94 million units in the quarter, but Canalys expects its lineup of Series 40 Asha products in the first quarter of 2012 to help it maintain its market position, particularly in emerging markets.
In addition, Nokia shipped nearly 20 million smartphones, which was substantially down on Q4 2010, but a decent performance given its current transitional state, Canalys said. Initial shipments of more than 1 million Nokia Windows Phone-based Lumia smartphones into a limited number of countries helped buoy volumes. Despite leaving room for optimism around its smartphone performance, Nokia’s revenues fell 21 percent from $16.6 billion a year ago to $13.2 billion in Q4 2011, and it suffered a $1.4 billion loss.
“Nokia’s new Windows Phone devices are an important step forward for the company, and that it managed to bring two products to market in 2011 and announce another device for North America in the opening weeks of the year is very encouraging," said Pete Cunningham, a principal analyst with Canalys. “All three Lumia models are well designed, credible and competitive. They demonstrate Nokia’s ability to produce high-quality smartphones, but they are not game-changers, and the company still has a lot of work to do."
“Q4 proved to be a tough quarter for many vendors, not least because of substantial demand for the iPhone 4S," Jones said. “The numbers are still coming in, but our early take on the state of the smartphone market is that, while Apple and Samsung clearly saw phenomenal performances, many other vendors have struggled."
