While Apple trailed Nokia in 2010 smartphone volume, Apple dominated the market in revenue, and took a 29 percent share of the market value, according to a study by Strategy Analytics. The top three players namely Apple, Nokia and RIM generated 64 percent of the revenue in the smartphone market. Apple had just 16 percent of smartphone market volume in 2010. However, in terms of revenue Apple claimed 29 percent share. Nokia followed with 20 percent and RIM with 15 percent value share. Samsung ended up being the champion of Google Android smartphones in 2010, taking 9 percent of smartphone market revenue and surpassing HTC. While smartphones represented just over 22 percent of the handset market in terms of volume last year, they accounted for more than 50 percent of the market in terms of revenue. Unlike feature phones, smartphone average sales prices have held steady in the USD 300 range during 2010, bolstered by the introduction of new technology, such as the Retina LCD and Amoled displays, as well as high speed 1GHz processors. The dominance of the top three Apple, Nokia and RIM actually weakened in the fourth quarter, as the combined value share of these three players fell from 72 percent to 61 percent. The Android-based handset market, which will grow considerably this year, is still dominated by vendors like Samsung and HTC. However, Chinese vendors, like ZTE and Huawei, also have a presence, particularly in lower price tiers.
