Will Apple Inc. (AAPL) & Google Inc (GOOG) Suffer From This?

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Over the past few weeks, we have talked quite a bit about the overall growth of the smartphone market (see more here). In an overall sense, this is great news for Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) among others. Both of these tech giants are doing big things, with both hoping to grab onto even more market share in the future.

However, you cannot expect positive results in every region throughout the world. And this is just what we have seen in Western Europe during the first quarter of 2013.

According to a recent report by IDC, the Western European mobile phone market slipped during the first quarter thanks to a smartphone slowdown.

Apple Inc. (AAPL)Any slowdown in the smartphone market is sure to impact both Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG). After all, these two companies are responsible for the leading operating systems.

Here is a brief excerpt from the piece:

“The Western European mobile phone market shrank in the first quarter of 2013 due to a lower than expected slowdown in the smartphone shipments, according to International Data Corporation (IDC). Total shipments dropped 4.2% year on year to 43.6 million units, according to IDC’s European Mobile Phone Tracker, published in May 2013.”

It is hard to imagine any market losing ground in terms of smartphone shipments, but this is exactly what happened in Western Europe during the first quarter of the year.

While the smartphone segment of the market may have fell off, it is important to note that shipments still increased 12 percent year over year. The reason this is considered a slip is that it is the lowest growth since IDC starting tracked the market in 2004.

How are Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) performing? Here is more from the same study:

“In terms of operating system, Android continues to dominate the smartphone landscape. In the quarter, Google’s OS shipped 21.9 million units and market share increased to 69% in 1Q13 from 55% in last years’ first quarter. Apple’s iOS continues to lose ground as market share declined to 20% from 25% in 1Q12. Windows Phone improved its position to become the third biggest OS in the region, but it still represents a tiny percentage of the smartphones shipped. Its market share rose to 6% in 1Q13 from 4% in 1Q12.”

As you can see, Google is in better position than Apple at the present time – at least as far as the Western European market is concerned.

If you want to get a better idea of where Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) stand, check out the graph, courtesy of IDC on the next page.

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