How Dramatically the Smartphone Market Has Changed Since 2010

I remember my first cell phone. It was an orange Nokia, the thing felt like a brick, and I’m pretty sure it was indestructible. I wish that I still had it stowed away in the attic because I would love to get in another game of Snake! Back in the early 2000’s, not many people sent texts; at least not like they do today. T9 texting required you to form words with the 9 buttons you had on the phone. It took forever, so a quick phone call was usually a much easier way to communicate.

Today, our phones are more like minicomputers, soaking up our time and demanding our attention with every notification. This animated pie chart visualization which was originally shared on Reddit’s /r/DataIsBeautiful subreddit by creator /u/jcceagle shows just how much the phone market has changed since 2010.

You’ll see that Nokia dominated the market from April 2010 right up until January of 2013 when they were overtaken by both Samsung and Apple. They quickly became almost non-existent making up only 5.18% of the market in July of 2016. In 2016, Samsung was the dominate phone brand with 32.18% of the market. Moving to April of 2019, you can see Samsung is still on top with the most share of the cell phone market, but with Apple is right behind them. Chinese phone manufacture Huawei starts to make a larger appearance with around 10% of the market by December of 2019. By the end of March 2021, Samsung is hanging on to its lead by only a thread. Only a .94% margin separates Samsung and Apple. Their battle for smartphone dominance has been ongoing for years, with no end in sight. Xiaomi and Huawei (both Chinese companies) come in 3rd and 4th in market share. In 2021, Nokia, which once dominated the industry, represents just .64% of the cell phone market.