We love our Smartphones and the dominance of Apple and Samsung is unquestionable in Australia let alone around the world. But after those two big names, who’s selling the most handsets. It might surprise many to find Alcatel in third place for the second quarter in a row.
With a strong flagship product like the Idol 3, and perhaps more importantly a deep and wide range of smart and feature phones in the low-cost market targeting pre-paid consumers Alcatel have been steadily gaining market share – though in detail it’s more than 70% growth for them it’s pushing them to 10% of local market share.
The figures come from independent analyst firm IDC
Alcatel are rightly quite pleased – “2015 was a game-changing year for Alcatel both locally and abroad. The market’s Q4 results reflect that we are clearly but aggressively growing whilst always ensuring that we deliver technology that makes sense to mass market consumers, from design through to affordability”, said Sam Skontos, Vice President and Managing Director, ALCATEL Pacific and Singapore.
“Our ongoing commitment to, and focus on the pre-paid segment of the market remains as strong as ever, and we head into 2016 with an impressive portfolio of products and complementary brand activity across music, lifestyle and sport. Such activity will continue to bring the brand to life and give Australian consumers meaningful opportunities to engage with our brand”, he added.
Around the world Alcatel is reaching top 5 in the handset market, and while Australia kicks into 3rd place, they are now aiming to hit number 4 in the USA.
The figures are quite interesting, with Telstra branded handsets – also quite low-cost – coming in fourth, while Huawei, HTC and Microsoft battle for the middle ground and emerging brand Oppo seeks further growth.
These figures are of course affected by the launch patterns of the handset makers, with Q1 and Q2 this year likely to be exceptional for Samsung with the S7 release – though if Apple can release their rumoured smaller iPhone in March they too could see a bump out of their regular pattern.
| Quarter | Q3’15 | Q4’15 | Q4’15 Market Share (%) | Q3/Q4 2015 Growth |
| Vendor | Units | Units | (%) | (%) |
| Apple | 924,626 | 1,344,353 | 47.3% | 45.4% |
| Samsung | 619,894 | 631,958 | 22.2% | 1.9% |
| Alcatel | 154,720 | 261,520 | 9.2% | 69.0% |
| Telstra | 152,430 | 148,497 | 5.2% | -2.6% |
| Microsoft | 68,745 | 100,413 | 3.5% | 46.1% |
| Huawei | 52,412 | 79,546 | 2.8% | 51.8% |
| HTC | 82,800 | 76,347 | 2.7% | -7.8% |
| ZTE | 59,912 | 63,779 | 2.2% | 6.5% |
| LG Electronics | 47,999 | 39,674 | 1.4% | -17.3% |
| Motorola | 16,800 | 28,921 | 1.0% | 72.1% |
| Nokia | 12,948 | 23,191 | 0.8% | 79.1% |
| Vodafone | 21,000 | 10,000 | 0.4% | -52.4% |
| OPPO | 4,501 | 9,854 | 0.3% | 118.9% |
| Sony | 6,139 | 9,434 | 0.3% | 53.7% |
| Others | 13,534 | 7,569 | 0.3% | -44.1% |
| DORO | 1,300 | 3,500 | 0.1% | 169.2% |
| BlackBerry | 2,500 | 2,268 | 0.1% | -9.3% |
| TOTALS | 2,242,260 | 2,840,824 | 100.0% | 26.7% |
