If you want to find a Symbian owner in Australia, the best place to look might be in line at the Apple Store. Apple is now Australia’s No. 1 mobile phone vendor as Symbian maker Nokia lost nearly half of its market share during the first quarter of 2011.
“Nokia suffered a double-whammy, the feature phone market collapsed, with 79 percent of new mobiles now being smartphones,” research firm IDC announced Monday. Nokia fell to 24.6 percent of the market during the first quarter of 2011, diving steeply from 49.5 percent held during the same period in 2010.
“We expected Symbian to decline steadily throughout 2011, however the pace of decline has exceeded all expectations, with the majority of would-be Symbian buyers heading to Apple,” IDC analyst Mark Novosel said.
Don’t expect the remainder of 201 to be any better for Nokia. Consumers will continue to “side-step Symbian smartphones and feature phones popularity continues to dwindle,” according to the analyst. Meanwhile, Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 – Nokia’s future – “faces a tough year” as the software grows slowly and Apple and Android punch it out for top place. Nokia may want to adopt the Cubs’ mantra: Wait until next year.
