The worldwide mobile phone market declined 1.9% year-on-year in the second quarter of 2012 while Samsung (PINK:SSNLF) maintained its lead over Nokia (NYSE:NOK) and Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) as the world’s top mobile phone vendor. According to IDC’s European Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, vendors shipped 42.1 million units during the quarter, a drop of 1.9% year-on-year.
The feature phone segment continued to decline, with shipments down 30% to 14.7 million units. The segment continues to be supported by the lowest price levels: 58% of the total feature phone shipments were under the $75 price point and the fastest growing segment is for phones at half that price.
Smartphone shipments increased 26.6% year-on-year to 27.4 million units during the quarter.
Due to the global financial crisis, the global economy is faltering. Most nations’ economy is still not recovering. People have no strong desire for purchasing new phones. Also, they do not have the enough budget. I think the mobile phone producers may change their strategies to aim at low-end market to win more potential customers . Apple is going to produce ipad Mini, a smaller tablet computer with the lower price. I believe that this strategy will help Apple to gain more market share.