More than a third of the handsets used in Finland are 4G/LTE capable

The share of 4G/LTE capable handsets used in Finland increased almost two-fold to 36% in 2015 from 19% in 2014. At the same time, the most used handset model in 2015 was Apple iPhone 4S, which does not include 4G/LTE feature. This is according to the research of mobile handset installed base in Finland conducted by Aalto University’s Department of Communications and Networking.

Among manufacturers, Nokia/Microsoft dominates the handset base, although its share in 2015 dropped to 46% from 55% in 2014. With the share of 28%, Samsung is the second largest manufacturer, followed by Apple that accounts for 13,5% of handsets in Finland.

The number of smartphones in Finland grows steadily, with two out of three handsets (67%) being a smartphone in 2015. In the race of smartphone operating systems Android holds a leading position, accounting for 32% of all handsets in Finland. The second popular operating system is Windows Phone with the share of 17% out of all handsets in use. However, as the number of Windows Phone handsets grows slower than the number of iOS running iPhones, Apple’s operating system may become the second most popular among the handsets in Finland already in 2016.

As an Android smartphone manufacturer, Samsung ranks first, although its share in 2015 decreased to 73,5% from 82,5% in 2014. At the same time, the shares of other Android producers, such as Huawei, Sony, and LG increased significantly in 2015.

The research data for the report were collected in cooperation with Finnish mobile network operators and GfK Finland. The data included all handsets with Finnish subscriptions used in mobile networks during September 2015. Aalto University has been involved in longitudinal research on handsets as well as the diffusion and life cycle of their technologies since 2005.

mobile_handset_population_2005-2015.pdf

Further information, please contact:

Doctoral candidate Alexandr Vesselkov

alexandr.vesselkov@aalto.fi

Tel. +358 (0)50 434 2879

Professor Heikki Hämmäinen

heikki.hammainen@aalto.fi

Tel. +358 (0)50 384 1696