Apple edges Motorola with 3% global cell phone market share
Apple moved ahead of rival Motorola in unit sales in the first quarter of 2010, with the iPhone taking a 3 percent share of the total cell phone market.
Apple moved ahead of rival Motorola in unit sales in the first quarter of 2010, with the iPhone taking a 3 percent share of the total cell phone market.
Apple's 8.75 million iPhones sold in the first quarter of 2010 were good for a 16.1 percent worldwide market share, taken at the expense of Research in Motion's BlackBerry smartphones.
Set to arrive in the third quarter of 2010, Research in Motion's new BlackBerry 6 mobile operating system will feature multitouch input for its Web browser, e-mail, media player and more, with iPhone-like features such as pinch-to-zoom.
Google on Monday revealed that it has canceled its HTC-manufactured Nexus One smartphone for Verizon in the U.S. In addition, Research in Motion announced that BlackBerry 6, its next mobile operating system, will be available in the next calendar quarter.
A new study found that nearly half of all BlackBerry owners would be likely to switch to another smartphone, with a majority of those eyeing Apple's iPhone.
Though Apple and its co-founder were not present at this week's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, Steve Jobs took top honors at the event, being named "Mobile Industry Personality of the Year."
As bandwidth-heavy smartphones like Apple's iPhone turn huge profits for handset makers, wireless carriers across the world have struggled to keep up with bandwidth needs. One executive said this week that new business models must be explored for carriers to remain profitable.
Apple competitor Research in Motion had a blockbuster quarter, selling 10.1 million handsets and earning $3.92 billion in revenue in the three-month frame ending in November.
In less than two and a half years on the market, Apple's iPhone has managed nearly a fifth of the total global smartphone market, thanks to nearly 50 percent year-over-year growth in sales in the third quarter of 2009.
Analysts estimate Apple's iPhone operating profit to be the highest in the mobile phone industry, overtaking market leader Nokia in the last financial quarter.
Research In Motion Thursday officially introduced the BlackBerry Storm2, the company's latest salvo in its fight for smartphone supremacy with Apple's iPhone.
Due to its presence on multiple manufacturers' devices, Android will overtake Apple's iPhone in terms of market share by 2012, an analyst has predicted.
Adobe on Monday announced partnerships with numerous handset operating system makers, including Research in Motion, Nokia, Palm, Google and Microsoft, to bring Flash Player 10.1 to smartphones. Absent from the list: Apple.
As Apple's iPhone prepares for its debut in China later this year, competing handset maker Research in Motion is also pushing for its BlackBerry line to expand to 3G in the nation of over one billion.
Sales of iPhones increased more than sixfold during the second quarter of 2009, helping Apple maintain its ranking as the third largest smartphone maker worldwide, according to a new report.
With just 3 percent of the global cell phone market, smartphone makers Apple and Research in Motion command an estimated 35 percent of total worldwide operating revenue — and their share is expected to grow even more.
Approximately 12% of consumers who visited a retail store this past weekend to make their iPhone 3G S purchase said they were replacing a BlackBerry handset, the latest sign that Apple continues to make headway against rival Research in Motion in the high-stakes smartphone market.
Research in Motion put pressure on Apple Thursday with word that about 7.8 million BlackBerries had shipped during its latest fiscal quarter, again setting a new record — and dismissing the likelihood of new and cheaper iPhones as immediate threats.
In the latest sign that the iPhone is emerging as the platform of choice for companies big and small, Yahoo on Wednesday will reportedly cease work on its Mobile app for BlackBerry and other smartphones to concentrate its resources on iPhone and browser-centric development.
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