AppleInsider Staff
According to a press release from market research firm IDC, Apple's 37 million iPhone sales during the December quarter was enough to once again put the company at the head of the smartphone pack with a market share narrowly beating that of its main competitor Samsung by one percent.
The firm's Worldwide Mobile Phone Tracker saw Apple ride an industry-smashing quarter o grow its share of the market by 128.4 percent year-over-year to end with a 23.5 percent market share, while Samsung grew 275 percent to finish with a 22.8 percent share.
The fourth quarter saw Apple selling 37 million iPhones compared to the 36 million units Samsung sold, which included various Android-based models like the Galaxy S II and the Galaxy Nexus.
Despite being ousted from the driver's seat, Samsung broke records of its own, including passing the 30 million unit sold mark, netting the largest year-to-year increase among smartphone makers and ending 2011 as the world's overall market leader.
Apple ousts Samsung as world's No. 1 smartphone manufacturer. | Source: IDC
Overall, the worldwide smartphone market grew 54.7 percent from the year ago quarter as vendors shipped 157.8 million devices, compared to 102 million in 2010.
"By the end of the quarter, one out of every three mobiles phones shipped worldwide was a smartphone," said senior research analyst with IDC's Mobile Phone Technology and Trends team Ramon Llamas. "The launch of Apple's iPhone 4S played a key role in smartphone growth to capture pent-up demand, and smartphone launches from other vendors also provided a broad selection to meet varying preferences and budgets."
Nokia was the industry's biggest loser and posted the largest year-to-year decrease among top smartphone vendors. The company announced in early 2011 that it had entered a partnership with Microsoft and would be abandoning the Symbian operating system for Redmond's new Windows Phone platform. Following a dismal earnings call in January, the Finnish phone maker warned that the transition would continue impact sales well into 2012.
Source: IDC Worldwide Mobile Phone Tracker
In a recent report regarding the trend away from PCs and toward mobile devices, research group Canalys noted that Apple had beaten Samsung to become the world's largest smartphone vendor, though it fell short of estimating specific sales numbers from the South Korean electronics maker.
The iPhone was also credited with bringing Apple some 75 percent of all mobile phone profits, including so-called feature phones, during the quarter on just 9 percent of sales.
Charles Martin
Malcolm Owen
Andrew O'Hara
William Gallagher
41 Comments
Why can't we just accept the fact that Android is winning and the iPhone is an overpriced niche product? It would make everybody happier.
I don't see Apple's reign lasting more than the quarter. Samsung's unit growth is much more substantial, albeit less profitable. By the time the next iPhone gets released I think Samsung would have eaten even more of the other Android-based vendor's lunches and will be far ahead Apple in unit sales.
I don't see Apple's reign lasting more than the quarter. Samsung's unit growth is much more substantial, albeit less profitable.
Yup - as I posted in another thread, all the focus on marketshare reminds me of the underpants gnomes on SouthPark:
Phase One: Collect Marketshare
Phase Two: ??????
Phase Three: Profit!
Yup! How's that Phase two coming?
I also agree - I think Samsung is far more of a problem for other Android makers than anything else.
Much like Amazon is sucking the little oxygen left in the room by the iPad, Samsung is squeezing out the other Android phone makers.
So much for the much-vaunted advantage of "open" with hardware variety if no one can make money and they stop manufacturing Android devices
HTC in particular took a big hit last quarter. This is going to be the year of reconciliation in the Android phone space. We might finally see some rationality to the Android phone market and some pulling back on the perpetual "model every other week" - which, ironically, I think will boost Android sales more than anything.
Why can't we just accept the fact that Android is winning and the iPhone is an overpriced niche product? It would make everybody happier.
Be honest, I'd love it that way and throw this hot potato issue of 'The Biggest In The World' title to Samsung, Nokia or whoever. If it will keep bad press, NGO attacks, muckrakers and Congress away.
Hop over to AI's own Stock board. They can tell you more. The gists of what they discuss is Apple has getting to huge so fast that it is losing its old underdog status that saves the company for so long. Apple is becoming a gigantic corporation and from now on, people will treat Apple differently and not in positive way.
The barbs and poisons used to attack Microsoft a decade ago is now heading for Apple, sometimes with very sons and daughters of Microsoft haters themselves. Just because it is so big now?
Someone post this phase but I don't remember who. I'll give the original poster a biscuit if he turns up;
"Apple might as well changed its logo from an apple to bull's eye. It s size and influences to the industry is so vast governments, activists and people won't let it does its own things in its own way unnoticed anymore."
Samsung was the only one who figure out to model what apple was doing which was to have a single product in the market so not to overly confuse the consumer. As long as Samsung mirror what Apple does they should be fine.
However, their recent ads may back fire on them. They are trying to play buy a mac ad campaign but in their ads they directly insult the apple used not sure how well that will play with winning people over.