Gartner's analysis for quarter three is out and it doesn't look good for the iPhone. Incredibly, it only captured 3.9% of the market for 2011's quarter three. Ahead of Apple are Nokia (23.9%), Samsung (17.8%), and LG (4.8%). Of course, these numbers refer to the total mobile phone market. While smartphone use is growing rapidly, it has not quite reached the point where one phone can completely dominate the market.
What is more concerning is Apple's performance in the smartphone world. Even in this sphere, Apple surprisingly is far behind other phones. In a comparison by operating system, IOS takes third place with 15% market share as compared to first place Android with 52.5% and second place Symbian with 16.9%.
This information is in line with our recent post about Samsung's newfound dominance in the smartphone market.
While Gartner also explains this decrease in sales because of Apple's fourth quarter iPhone 4S release, these numbers seem uncharacteristically low. Even with a new phone release, can Apple really compete with Android's 52.5% dominance? Only time will tell.