HTC loses smartphone war to Apple and Samsung

The divergent fortunes within the $200bn (£130bn) global smartphone market were laid bare this week when Taiwan's HTC reported a 98% slump in profits, confirming Samsung and Apple's seemingly unassailable lead over their rivals.

In 2010, HTC was the world's biggest maker of smartphones that used Google's Android operating system. Now it has joined two other former titans, Nokia and BlackBerry, in a desperate search for profit and growth.

As HTC reported a slump in first-quarter profits to £0.9m, Samsung Electronics, the world's largest maker of mobile phones and smartphones, was basking in a forecast that its quarterly operating profit would be around 8.7trn (£5bn).

The market is splitting into three tiers that allow only for high-end products in developed markets, a bevy of barely profitable products in the middle, and a hugely competitive low-cost segment in developing markets such as China.

In the last quarter of 2012, the last period for which figures are available, Apple and Samsung together shipped 111.5m smartphones, according to researcher IDC. That's more than 50% of a market that has tripled in volume over that time – and compares to a combined share of less than 20% back in the second quarter of 2010, when the once mighty Nokia had 37%.


/The Guardian/