Sam Oliver
Citing a local firm, Taiwan-based industry publication DigiTimes noted that integrated circuit shipments in the third quarter of 2009 hit 116.97 million, up 30.9 percent. Leading that growth, and giving a boost to suppliers, has been the iPhone, which sold 7.4 million units globally last quarter. The report suggests that Apple could blow out its previous record when the December quarter concludes.
In the third quarter of 2009, sales of the Apple iPhone 3GS far exceeded expectations, and sales are expected to reach 10 million in the fourth quarter of 2009," the report said. "iPhone chip suppliers have benefited from this development. Furthermore, other terminal vendors made advance procurements to prepare for the peak season in the fourth quarter."
It goes on to note that Infineon, maker of baseband and radio frequency transceivers, TriQuint, manufacturer of power amplifiers, and Samsung, creator of application processors, are all due to benefit from increased demand for the iPhone.
Apple's continued strength in the smartphone market was also noted Monday by analyst Charlie Wolf with Needham & Co. In a new edition of his "Wolf Bytes," he called the iPhone the "gold standard" of the smartphone market. As competitors like the BlackBerry, Palm Pre, and Motorola Droid look to capture some of Apple's buzz, Wolf said he believes the iPhone will remain on top for the foreseeable future.
"No competitive smartphone has emerged as an iPhone killer just as no portable music player came close to becoming an iPod killer," he said. "That's because no one develops user-friendly software like Apple does."
The highest market shares of the iPhone exist in the U.S. and Western Europe, where it commands 29.2 percent and 23.5 percent of the smartphone market, respectively.
Apple's successes have not been as strong in Asia, however, where the leader is Japan with a decent 9.2 percent market share. But the region's real prize is China, where a modest sales start was mostly attributed to a gray market of phones available for less money with Wi-Fi. Wolf said carrier China Unicom will need to lower its prices if it plans to compete with the gray market.
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William Gallagher
Wesley Hilliard
Christine McKee
Malcolm Owen
Andrew Orr
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37 Comments
Looking at that chart, this quarter may be the one that iPhone overtakes the Blackberry for the first time.
Another year and it will have overtaken Nokia too..
There's a shortage of iPhones in Malaysia - the waiting period is anywhere between a month and 60 days.
I dont know why for March 2008, the graph shows that iPhone's market share became nearly 0.
I dont know why for March 2008, the graph shows that iPhone's market share became nearly 0.
The market share became nearly 0 in the 2nd quarter of 2008 as Apple only shipped/sold 717K iPhones while it prepped for the iPhone 3G intro in July. By May of 2008, Apple had no iPhones for sale in the US (though you could've bought one on eBay.)
By the way, the number after the year refers to calendar quarters not months, so 2008/1 was 1st quarter, and 2008/3 was 3rd quarter. The nearly 0 market share happens in the unmarked quarter in-between those two.
Looking at that chart, this quarter may be the one that iPhone overtakes the Blackberry for the first time.
Another year and it will have overtaken Nokia too..
Agreed.