HTC hits top 10, Android surges
In the second quarter, HTC jumped to the No. 8 spot in worldwide smartphone sales, and Google's Android leaped ahead of Apple's iOS, according to Gartner.
Taiwan-based manufacturer HTC has been growing its market share steadily for some time now, thanks to strong consumer interest in smartphones, something the company specializes in.
Today, Gartner released its numbers for worldwide mobile device sales for the second quarter of 2010 and, for the first time, HTC has made it into the top 10.
Selling about 5.9 million units, HTC came in at No. 8 on Gartner's chart. This is more than double its second-quarter 2009 figures and gives the company a market share of 1.8 percent for the second quarter of 2010. The research firm attributes this to the popularity of the Android platform and HTC's aggressive branding strategy.
This point is further backed up by numbers showing Google's mobile platform overtaking Apple's iOS to take third position for smartphone operating systems. An earlier report quoting research firm Nielsen's findings corroborates this rise in Android's market share.
However, HTC still has quite a bit of catching up to do as Apple, which took the next higher spot at No. 7, sold a lot more iPhones--about 8.7 million during the same period.
The usual suspects took the top spots with Nokia at No. 1, commanding 34.2 percent of total sales. Korean giants Samsung and LG took the No. 2 and No. 3 positions, respectively.
(Source: Crave Asia)