Gartner said Tuesday that Apple succeeded in capturing market share from Nokia and other smartphone producers last year. The iPhone OS held 14.4 percent of the worldwide market at the end of 2009 — sharply up from Apple’s 8.2 percent share in the prior year — enabling Apple to slip by Microsoft and become the world’s third-largest smartphone vendor, the research firm said.
One reason behind Apple’s 2009 success story is the company’s realization of the importance of the ecosystem, noted Roberta Cozza, a principal research analyst at Gartner. Still, she thinks it won’t be easy for Apple to maintain the same market growth this year.
“The iPhone continues to be the most iconic device in the industry, and we have yet to see another device to match that,” Cozza said. “But Apple still needs to continue to innovate and stay ahead of everybody else.”
The Challenges Ahead
Cozza believes we will probably see a new product release from Apple in June. “But a lot of other higher-end platforms have improved their user interfaces and can now compete with the iPhone,” so it’s going to be “tough for Apple” to maintain its marketplace edge, Cozza said.
One indication of the challenges that Apple now faces comes from the latest smartphone sales figures for North America. According to Cozza, Apple’s market share fell from 29.5 percent in the third quarter of 2009 to 24 percent in the fourth quarter. This is largely attributable to heavy promotion of new handsets running Android, which increased its North American market share to 19 percent in the fourth quarter — up from 5.2 percent in the prior quarter.
Moreover, the Android platform grew its market share worldwide by 3.5 percentage points in 2009, Cozza said. “Android’s success experienced in the fourth quarter of 2009 should…