The companies that dominate Israel's mobile telephone market Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. (KSX: 5930; LSE: SMSN), Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL), and Nokia Corporation (NYSE; OMX: NOK), sold 1.47 million of the 2.4 million mobile phones bought in Israel in 2012, according to IDC, and published exclusively by "Globes". Smartphone sales rose to 1.6 million in 2012 from 1.5 million in 2011, while sales of regular mobile phones fell to 797,000 from 1.06 million.
According to IDC, Samsung sold 910,000 smartphones and ordinary mobile phones in Israel in 2012. Apple's iPhone sales fell to 430,000 in 2012 from 550,000 in 2011, and Nokia sold 450,000 phones, mostly ordinary mobile phones. Samsung's strong sales is the result of a decision by the company's management in Korea to sell phones at all price levels. Apple is still sticking to its policy of selling only high-end smartphones.
Although the iPhone may still be the most sought after smartphone, not all customers can afford it, and they opt for cheaper rivals. Samsung has successfully built up its Galaxy smartphone brand, especially the Galaxy S3, and it is now as desirable as the iPhone.
Samsung boosted its Israeli market share from 24.5% in 2011 to 38% in 2012 at the expense of Nokia, whose market share fell from 29.7% to 18.8%. Nokia may be able to recapture market share with its Lumia smartphone with a Windows Phone 8 operating systems, after investing millions of dollars in markets. Nokia importer Eurocom Communications Ltd. has also been hosting carriers' service reps who will sell Lumia phones.
Apple iPhone's market share fell from 21.6% in 2011 to 17.9% in 2011, putting it in third place. The market share of Sony Ericsson, which rebranded as Sony declined from 7.3% in 2011 to 6.9% in 2012. Korea's LG Corporation's (KSX: 3350) market share fell from 6.8% in 2011 to 5% in 2012. Motorola Mobility succeeded in boosting its Israeli market share from 1.5% in 2011 to 4.6% in 2012, even though it withdrew its local representative as part of cutbacks by parent company Google Inc. (Nasdaq: GOOG). The market share of Research In Motion Ltd.'s (Nasdaq: BBRY) Blackberry was halved from 6.3% in 2011 to 3.2% in 2012, but it expects to recover this year with the new Blackberry Z10 smartphone.
IDC Israel analyst Shai Horovitz says that Israelis do not consider or buy Chinese mobile phones. She adds, however, "This could change following favorable reviews and support by carriers."
ZTE Corporation (SZSE: 0063; HKSE: 0763), which entered Israel only a few months ago, has reached a market share of 0.5%. Taiwan's HTC Corporation (TWSE: 2498) increased its market share from 0.6% in 2011to 0.7% in 2012, selling 15,000 smartphones. Late last year, it signed a deal for the sale of 10,000 One S smartphones to Israel Electric Corporation (IEC) (TASE: ELEC.B22), and it is not clear how many of these phones were included in IDC's review for the year.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on March 4, 2013
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