Apple overtook Samsung in the fourth quarter of 2011 to grab the top spot among global smartphone makers, earning 23.9 percent of the market with sales of 37 million iPhones, according to one set of estimates.
Apple's iOS and Google's Android together have reached close to 55 percent market penetration of the estimated 200 million potential smart device purchasers in the U.S., while the two platforms have the most room to grow in China, which has 122 million untapped potential users, according to a new analysis.
After buyers holding out for the iPhone 4S resulted in slowed iPhone 4 sales for Apple last quarter, Chinese handset maker ZTE slipped past it to become the fourth-largest global handset maker, while Samsung took the top spot among smartphone vendors worldwide, according to a new analysis.
Just four years after releasing the iPhone, Apple has managed to pass Nokia and fend off a challenge from Samsung in the second quarter on its way to a new milestone as the world's No. 1 smartphone maker in terms of volume.
Android's share of U.S. mobile web traffic climbed to 25% in August in its best one month gain since Nov. 2009.
Shipments of smartphones running Google's Android operating system outpaced iPhones for the first time during the second quarter of the year, as sales of all integrated mobile devices worldwide rose more than 50% to 61.6 million units.
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.
Apple's iPhone held onto a 13.7% share of global smartphone unit sales in the second quarter, outpacing Microsoft's Windows Mobile, which now claims just 9% of the market, according to Canalys.
New reports forecast that Apple will sell 50 million phones in 2011, and more than 80 million in 2012, as worldwide expansion and popularity of the iPhone continues to grow.
Apple's iPhone now accounts for 8% of all mobile phone revenue and a whopping 32% of the industry's handset profits, according to figures published by Bernstein Research analyst Toni Sacconaghi.
Even amid turbulent times, smartphone adoption continues to rise, with a new study revealing that nearly half of those consumers who plan to make a new smartphone purchase in the next three months will buy an iPhone.
Apple saw its share of global smartphone market more than double on a year-over-year basis during the first quarter of the year but still has much work to do before catching BlackBerry maker Research in Motion and market leader Nokia.
Aggressive promotions through its US wireless carrier helped push BlackBerry maker Research in Motion ahead Apple and the iPhone to take honors as the most popular smartphone maker during the first quarter of 2009.
A new US survey reveals a general decline in mobile phone growth, a mass exodus from Sprint to other carriers, a significant but relaxing demand for the iPhone, a failure of the Android G1 to have much impact for T-Mobile, but continued strength in the smartphone segment.
The popularity of Apple's WiFi mobile platform as a handheld web browser device is rapidly accelerating worldwide and dominating web traffic in the US, according to a new report issued by mobile advertising firm AdMob. Apple's strong position promises to color how the mobile web develops.
Apple's share of the worldwide smartphone market is closer to 13% than the 16% reported earlier this week, but that's still good enough to push the iPhone maker past Microsoft to become the third largest smartphone OS vendor, according to Gartner.
In addition to outselling a broad and combined range of Windows Mobile handsets, Apple's iPhone 3G is being credited this week as the lone force responsible for growth of the smartphone market during the September quarter.
Apple in the last six months has broadened its lead among the teenage demographic in the areas of mobile phones and digital music, a critical indicator of the company's long-term growth prospects in those respective markets.
The iPhone's share of the worldwide browser market has increased nearly twofold following the release of the iPhone 3G last month, leading researchers at PacificCrest to suggest that September quarter sales of the device may be tracking 1.5 million units ahead of expectations.
Apple during the first quarter of 2008 rode the booming smartphone market to sales of more than 1.7 million iPhones, good enough to make it the No. 3 manufacturer of multi-function handsets worldwide, according to a report released Friday by market research firm Gartner.
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Josh Ong
Kasper Jade
AppleInsider Staff
Prince McLean
Sam Oliver
Katie Marsal
Slash Lane
