Apple now the world's No. 3 smartphone vendor
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.
The Cupertino-based electronics maker ended the quarter with a 5.3 percent share of the global smartphone market, behind Nokia and Research In Motion (RIM), whose sales of 14.58 million and 4.31 million smartphones garnered a 45.2 percent and 13.4 percent share, respectively.
In the US, Apple faired even better by claiming the No. 2 spot overall with a 20 percent share of the market. The iPhone maker, however, remains a distant second to RIM, which maintained its No. 1 US ranking with a share totaling 42 percent.
Overall, Gartner said first quarter worldwide smartphone sales to end users grew 29 percent compared to the same period in 2007, reaching 32.2 million units. The firm added the smartphones accounted for 11 percent of the global mobile device market.
In Europe, Middle East, and Africa, sales of the integrated devices totaled 11.7 million units, a 38.7 percent increase from the first quarter of 2007. Meanwhile, the blistering North American smartphone market saw sales skyrocket by more than 106 percent to 7.3 million units.
"Despite economic concerns, the smartphone market continued to expand in the United States, driven by heavy advertising and strong marketing promotions as more devices reached mass market price points,” said Hugues De La Vergne, principal analyst for mobile terminals research at Gartner. "North American operators are giving these devices strong support, as they provide higher average revenue per unit."
Globally, RIM saw the biggest rise year-over-year, with sales of its BlackBerry handsets more than doubling to reach a growth rate of 107 percent. Nokia took second honors in the growth category with sales of its devices rising more than 25 percent. The biggest loser was Tokyo-based Sharp, whose smartphone sales declined 24 percent to just 1.3 million units.
The Cupertino-based electronics maker ended the quarter with a 5.3 percent share of the global smartphone market, behind Nokia and Research In Motion (RIM), whose sales of 14.58 million and 4.31 million smartphones garnered a 45.2 percent and 13.4 percent share, respectively.
In the US, Apple faired even better by claiming the No. 2 spot overall with a 20 percent share of the market. The iPhone maker, however, remains a distant second to RIM, which maintained its No. 1 US ranking with a share totaling 42 percent.
Overall, Gartner said first quarter worldwide smartphone sales to end users grew 29 percent compared to the same period in 2007, reaching 32.2 million units. The firm added the smartphones accounted for 11 percent of the global mobile device market.
In Europe, Middle East, and Africa, sales of the integrated devices totaled 11.7 million units, a 38.7 percent increase from the first quarter of 2007. Meanwhile, the blistering North American smartphone market saw sales skyrocket by more than 106 percent to 7.3 million units.
"Despite economic concerns, the smartphone market continued to expand in the United States, driven by heavy advertising and strong marketing promotions as more devices reached mass market price points,” said Hugues De La Vergne, principal analyst for mobile terminals research at Gartner. "North American operators are giving these devices strong support, as they provide higher average revenue per unit."
Globally, RIM saw the biggest rise year-over-year, with sales of its BlackBerry handsets more than doubling to reach a growth rate of 107 percent. Nokia took second honors in the growth category with sales of its devices rising more than 25 percent. The biggest loser was Tokyo-based Sharp, whose smartphone sales declined 24 percent to just 1.3 million units.
Comments
This is a re run of on line music sales success ...
Apple will overtake RIM
The people working at apple really know how to invade! LOL Can we hire them to our government?
LOL no...its ok, actually that's not a good idea.
I am very impressed with Apple's goals and achievements!
*tear
hehehehheeh
Apple saw the biggest growth. From 0 to 1.7 million. I'm sure Steve would have no qualms about dividing by zero. That's infinity% growth!
actually if they only sold 1 unit, the growth rate would still be infinity
actually if they only sold 1 unit, the growth rate would still be infinity
Yes, lets not get too proud yet. Remember, even the Zune had an infinite growth rate after it was introduced...
I could be wrong, but I think it has slowed a bit since then...
Anyway, this report does not get interesting until we see how things go after Monday (or Tuesday in Oz).
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.
The Cupertino-based electronics maker ended the quarter with a 5.3 percent share of the global smartphone market, behind Nokia and Research In Motion (RIM), whose sales of 14.58 million and 4.31 million smartphones garnered a 45.2 percent and 13.4 percent share, respectively.
In the US, Apple faired even better by claiming the No. 2 spot overall with a 20 percent share of the market. The iPhone maker, however, remains a distant second to RIM, which maintained its No. 1 US ranking with a share totaling 42 percent.
Overall, Gartner said first quarter worldwide smartphone sales to end users grew 29 percent compared to the same period in 2007, reaching 32.2 million units. The firm added the smartphones accounted for 11 percent of the global mobile device market.
In Europe, Middle East, and Africa, sales of the integrated devices totaled 11.7 million units, a 38.7 percent increase from the first quarter of 2007. Meanwhile, the blistering North American smartphone market saw sales skyrocket by more than 106 percent to 7.3 million units.
"Despite economic concerns, the smartphone market continued to expand in the United States, driven by heavy advertising and strong marketing promotions as more devices reached mass market price points,” said Hugues De La Vergne, principal analyst for mobile terminals research at Gartner. "North American operators are giving these devices strong support, as they provide higher average revenue per unit."
Globally, RIM saw the biggest rise year-over-year, with sales of its BlackBerry handsets more than doubling to reach a growth rate of 107 percent. Nokia took second honors in the growth category with sales of its devices rising more than 25 percent. The biggest loser was Tokyo-based Sharp, whose smartphone sales declined 24 percent to just 1.3 million units.
[ View this article at AppleInsider.com ]
I guess I should check if there is more extensive info from this report available for free to the public, but I would like to see all the other players in the North American market.
HTC, Samsung, Motorola, Palm, etc still sell quite a few smartphones in the US market at least. How awesome is it that Apple has overtaken all of them with one phone model available on one carrier?
How many smart phone manufacturers are there?
as I noted above, HTC, Samsung, Motorola, and Palm are other major players in addition to Nokia and RIM.
actually if they only sold 1 unit, the growth rate would still be infinity
If they'd sold only 1 unit in Q1 2007 their growth rate would have been 172,529,900%. If they maintain this growth into Q2 2008 they'll have sold 2.9 trillion iPhones!
I should totally work for Gartner.
I guess I should check if there is more extensive info from this report available for free to the public.
There is not... We're lucky we got what we got =P
best,
K
Yes, lets not get too proud yet. Remember, even the Zune had an infinite growth rate after it was introduced...
I could be wrong, but I think it has slowed a bit since then..
No! No, I say!!!!
These rates will continue forever!
Infinite growth, year over year. Imagine the profits.
(And after a few quarters of THAT, I think it would be high time to offer dividends!)
This just gave me a cold rush. Anyone else realizes that although Apple is number 3, this place is achieved with ONE MODEL!!! Look at other competitors. They have like 25 different phones and things going on and this took them years.
I count 3 different models. Unless you're suggesting that the 4 GB, 8 GB and 16 GB models don't separate the market out into different buying types (which I think is wrong).
No! No, I say!!!!
These rates will continue forever!
Infinite growth, year over year. Imagine the profits.
(And after a few quarters of THAT, I think it would be high time to offer dividends!)
Is that you, George Gilder?
And what was it the 'experts' from other phone companies said before Apple launched ...?
This is a re run of on line music sales success ...
Apple will overtake RIM
Even with RiM's growth and emergence into new markets it does look like the 3G iPhone with v2.0 firmware will over probably overtake their worldwide position within the 2 quarters following its release. Even RiM's US position seems achievable within 4 quarters.
And that was in only 6 countries, at least two of which came aboard during that quarter, I believe. Isn't there between 30 and 40 officials countries offering retailers now?
I count 3 different models. Unless you're suggesting that the 4 GB, 8 GB and 16 GB models don't separate the market out into different buying types (which I think is wrong).
You have a point, and except for Nokia's N95 I don't know if another device that is differed by only its Flash capacity.
Since the 4GB had been discontinued well before calender quarter 01 for 2008 there were only 2 models being sold. That is still impressive considering the number of models being sold by other manufacturers, especially when you consider the excessive diversity of their models---this is what iVlad meant--to capture as most of the market as possible and that most of these mostly are highly subsidized.
Even with RiM's growth and emergence into new markets it does look like the 3G iPhone with v2.0 firmware will over probably overtake their worldwide position within the 2 quarters following its release. Even RiM's US position seems achievable within 4 quarters.
And that was in only 6 countries, at least two of which came aboard during that quarter, I believe. Isn't there between 30 and 40 officials countries offering retailers now?
You have a point, and except for Nokia's N95 I don't know if another device that is differed by only its Flash capacity.
Since the 4GB had been discontinued well before calender quarter 01 for 2008 there were only 2 models being sold. That is still impressive considering the number of models being sold by other manufacturers, especially when you consider the excessive diversity of their models---this is what iVlad meant--to capture as most of the market as possible and that most of these mostly are highly subsidized.
well, Apple seems to be priming the pump so to speak with new markets in countries that weren't previously selling the iPhone. Add to that a lot of talk about a new generation 3G iPhone with potentially a lot more features/storage, plus the supply dropping off of the first generation models to make room for the 3G iPhone. If they sold about 10 Million of the first generation in a less than a year, I think it is safe to say that Apple will probably crush the numbers for the rest of the year. There is a lot of pent up demand for the 3G iPhone, plus people are waiting to see what features they'll be adding. It wouldn't surprise me if they sold over 15 Million from the introduction to the end of the year. Apple seems to always be conservative as to what they project vs. reality.
If they sold about 10 Million of the first generation in a less than a year, I think it is safe to say that Apple will probably crush the numbers for the rest of the year. There is a lot of pent up demand for the 3G iPhone, plus people are waiting to see what features they'll be adding. It wouldn't surprise me if they sold over 15 Million from the introduction to the end of the year. Apple seems to always be conservative as to what they project vs. reality.
I hadn't thought of that. If they can sell 1.7M in a quarter with fairly common knowledge that a 3G version will come within 3-6 months, imagine what they can do with a 3G version, with exchange support, 3rd-party apps, and about 8x the the countries.
Even with RiM's growth and emergence into new markets it does look like the 3G iPhone with v2.0 firmware will over probably overtake their worldwide position within the 2 quarters following its release. Even RiM's US position seems achievable within 4 quarters.
And that was in only 6 countries, at least two of which came aboard during that quarter, I believe. Isn't there between 30 and 40 officials countries offering retailers now?
The iphone is already available in the whole world.
It is indefensible to argue that the iphone has any significant US market share at all --- when more than half of them are shipped overseas.
You can't have it both ways. As more and more countries have official iphone distribution deals --- the number of US "missing" iphones will decrease. That means one thing --- the iphone's US market share will fall to the real level.
It just goes to show how including US sales figures completely skews world sales figures. I'm beginning to think that the US phone market is such an annomoly in the whole scheme of things that statistics should be shown with and without the US data included. There's just something very strange about the US mobile phone market that does not tally with the rest of the world at all.
I think that it's the other way around.
Americans buy smartphones because they want to use smartphone features. Europeans buy S60 smartphones because they get them for next to nothing with contract --- but they don't care it's a smartphone or not.
Might as well exclude the millions of Nokia S60 phones from the tally because they aren't really used as smartphones.