The mobile industry is known for the fall of giants and the surge of new companies.
It can be hard to visualize how sales reflected the state of these phone manufacturers.
To solve this issue, The Next Web, a technology publication based in the Netherlands, created a timeline video of sales figures from 1992 to 2017 in just 15 seconds.
25 years of phone sales, in 15 seconds ??
(Made with Flourish ??) pic.twitter.com/WP9jXKMx3t— TNW (@thenextweb) April 1, 2019
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
This chart provides really interesting data, which details just how big Nokia and Motorola were before Samsung and Apple replaced them in the smartphone era.
Here is a breakdown of key events from the video.
When the ‘Big Two’ were Nokia and Motorola
The chart starts in 1992 with Motorola and Nokia as the two biggest manufacturers in the mobile market, with four and three million in device sales, respectively.
These figures continue to grow, with new players such as Ericsson, Panasonic and Alcatel entering the fray.
In 1999, Nokia overtook Motorola in sales, which started the company’s decade long reign in the mobile industry. We also see Samsung enter the market and eventually overtake Alcatel.
In the early 2000s, Nokia dominates the marketplace with more than 169 million phones sold. In the same year, Siemens enters the market.
As the chart moves toward 2003, Samsung becomes the third biggest phone manufacturer, overtaking Sony Ericsson.
Entering the smartphone era
As the chart progresses to 2007, LG enters the market and competes with Sony Ericsson. Siemens also drops out of the business and both Blackberry and Apple make an appearance.
Motorola’s sales continue to dwindle, with Samsung overtaking the company in 2009 with a huge margin of sales (199 million compared to 105 million).
In 2011, Huawei, HTC, and ZTE develop phones with strong sales numbers. We also see LG becoming the third-best manufacturer.
In 2013, Samsung finally ends Nokia’s domination in the market, having 387 million in sales compared to the Finnish company’s 329 million.
Nokia sales take a sharp decline in 2014, which coincides with Microsoft acquiring the company in September 2013. Samsung continues its domination with 399 million in sales and Apple trailing behind with 186 million. In that year, we also see the emergence of Xiaomi.
In 2015, Motorola had a resurgence under Lenovo, having the third best sales with 80 million. Both Oppo and BBK also enter the smartphone industry.
In 2016, Huawei overtakes Lenovo/Motorola with 105 million compared to 67 million and becomes the third best selling phone manufacturer.
The video’s timeline ends in 2017, with Samsung having 321 million in sales and Apple with 214 million. BBK drops out of the list, but it’s important to note that the Chinese company owns Vivo, Oppo and OnePlus.
Source: The Next Web Twitter
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