ZTE joins IDC's top 5 list; Nokia still leads

MANILA, Philippines - ZTE, a company that sells primarily lower-cost feature phones in emerging markets, shipped 16.8 million mobile phones in the last quarter of 2010, making it to IDC’s top five mobile phone vendors list for the first time. Nokia, however, maintained its lead with 123.7 million units shipped during the quarter.

IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker report said ZTE shipped 9.5 million units for the same period in 2009 and registered a year-over-year growth of 76.8 percent. Overall, it shipped 51.8 million units in 2010 for a market share of 3.7 percent.

The report cited ZTE’s shipments as steadily spreading from its home country of China to developing regions such as Africa and Latin America and making inroads in developed markets such as Western Europe and the United States as well as Japan.

“While most of its shipments have historically concentrated on entry-level and mid-range devices, some of its recent success is directly attributable to its rapidly expanding smartphone line, such as the Android-based Blade and Racer devices. Meanwhile, its S- and C-series entry-level feature phones provided additional competition within emerging markets,” IDC said.

Meanwhile, Nokia shipped 123.7 million units in the last quarter and 453 million units in 2010, gaining a market share of 32.6 percent. While this is a few notches lower than its 2009 market share of 36.9 percent, Nokia still the top global mobile phone vendor.

IDC said Nokia launched the C7 and the C6-01 touch-screen smartphones as well as the C3 combination touch screen and QWERTY device.

The other vendors in IDC’s top five were Samsung, LG Electronics, and Apple.

Both Samsung and LG Electronics reached new milestones in 4Q10, with Samsung “pushing through the 80-million unit threshold for the first time in the company’s history and improving its profit margins for the second straight quarter.”

LG Electronics, on the other hand, crossed the 30-million unit mark for the quarter, due in part to the success of Optimus One smartphone sales across multiple regions, according to IDC.

“LG’s smartphone strategy is paying off; the company sold more than a million units in the first month of availability, and newer versions (Optimus 2X, Optimus Black) are expected later this year,” IDC said.

Despite strong sales in developed markets such as North America and Western Europe, IDC said Apple slipped to the number five position although it has a record quarter unit shipment for the iPhone. It was, however, the company’s second straight quarter on IDC’s top 5 list.

Overall, the worldwide mobile phone market grew 17.9 percent in 4Q10, a new quarterly high driven by smartphones, according to IDC.

“Change-up among the number four and five vendors could be a regular occurrence this year,” said Ramon Llamas, senior research analyst with IDC’s Mobile Devices Technology and Trends team.

“Motorola, Research In Motion, and Sony Ericsson, all vendors with a tight focus on the fast-growing smartphone market and who had ranked among the top five worldwide vendors during 2010, are well within striking distance to move back into the top five list,” Llamas added.