The leader’s share of the rapidly growing market fell 22%

in 2013.

The Israeli smartphone market has undergone an upheaval. Figures from research company IDC Israel, published here for the first time, indicate a substantial change in direction. The big loser in this area in 2013 is Samsung, whose market share crashed by 22%, from 43.7% in 2012 to 34% in 2013. Despite the decline, Samsung is still the leading player in the Israeli market.

The market as a whole has grown considerably. According to IDC data, the number of smartphones sold shot up in 2013 to 2.4 million, compared with 1.6 million in 2012. On top of these figures, some 630,000 basic handsets were sold. Altogether, about 3 million mobile handsets were sold in Israel in 2013, compared with about 2 million in previous years.

Back to Samsung: Its Galaxy S4 telephone has not delivered the goods for the South Korean company. On April 11, Samsung will launch the Galaxy S5, in an attempt to turn the tide.

In second place in smartphones in Israel is Apple, which in 2013 raised its market share by 3.7%, from 26.7% to 27.7%. Apple recently enlisted additional importers, C-Data and iDigital. The company plans to expand the number of its sales outlets in consumer electronics chains. The new importers will operate alongside the mobile carriers.

“i-Phones are a wonderful product, and it was Apple that invented the market,” says IDC Israel research analyst Shai Horovitz, “Apple still benefits from caché margins, but it’s losing it at a crazy rate.”

Last year was also a good one for Sony, which raised its market share from 7.6% to 8.3%. Sony focused on two flagship products last year, Xperia Z and Xperia Z1, alongside other, simpler smartphones. For a long time, Sony has focused on two features that distinguish it from the competition: water and dust resistance, and high quality cameras. It seems that the marketing that highlights these features is working for it.

LG, which, until two years ago, was a minor player in the Israeli smartphone market, is beginning to command a substantial presence. Its market share grew from 3.7% to 6.7%. LG switched importers last year, and launched successful smartphones: Nexus 4 and 5, under the Google brand, and the G2, considered the best smartphone on the market today.

A surprising comeback has been staged by Nokia. The Finnish company, whose fortunes suffered serious decline in the past few years, managed to take off, and raised its market share by 131%, from 2.9% to 6.7%. It should be pointed out that in 2012 Nokia did not sell its Windows Phone handsets in Israel, and focused on basic products only.

The market share of the other brands sold in Israel was 16.6% in 2013.

“The Windows Phone did not have a good launch, because prices were very high,” says Horovitz, “Windows Phone reached a market share of 7.7%, but it is now declining, because the mobile carriers are not pushing these products. There’s no need to bury Microsoft just yet. With a different pricing policy, the situation could change.”

iPads plunge 36%

IDC released figures on the tablet computer market as well today. This market also underwent significant change in 2013. Apple continues to lead the market, with a 31.4% share, but this compares with 49.1% in 2012, representing a 36% drop. Although Apple’s products are sold in many stores in Israel, it seems that the attractive prices of its competitors with Android operating systems are hitting the iPad hard.

Samsung is one of the companies that have invested heavily in marketing their tablet offerings, and it is still in second place, with a market share of 25.5% in 2013, compared with 19.8% in 2012. In third place is Asus, with 16.2%, up from 11.5%, after which comes Lenovo with 5%, up from 0.9%, representing amazing growth of 455%. Last comes Acer, with 2.9%, up from 1.2%.

The total number of tablets sold in Israel also grew substantially last year, to 440,000 units, from 230,000 units in 2012.