Study finds smartphone users top 1B for first time ever
A study released by research firm Strategy Analytics on Wednesday found that the number of smartphones being used worldwide surpassed one billion units for the first time in history over the third quarter of 2012, some 16 years after the format was introduced in 1996.
Analysts at the firm view the world's first modern smartphone as being the Nokia Communicator, a brick-clamshell hybrid device targeted mainly at business users, which kept the Finnish telecom company at the head of the pack until Apple released the iPhone in 2007.
?The iPhone revolutionized smartphone design and it catalyzed industry growth," said Strategy Analytics Senior Analyst Scott Bicheno. "By the third quarter of 2011, we estimate there were 708 million smartphones in use worldwide. After a further year of soaring demand, the number of smartphones in use worldwide reached 1.038 billion units during the third quarter of 2012.?
Source: Strategy Analytics
The study's findings are consistent with a statement made by Google's Eric Schmidt during an interview last week, though the executive went further and said Android alone is on pace to see one billion users within the next year.
While Strategy Analytics fails to breakdown the distribution of users by operating system, the sheer rate at which smartphones are being adopted is staggering.
The firm's executive director, Neil Mawston, estimates that 1 in 7 of the world's population owned a smartphone in the third quarter of 2012, and notes market penetration is still low.
?Most of the world does not yet own a smartphone and there remains huge scope for future growth, particularly in emerging markets such as China, India and Africa," Mawston said. "The first billion smartphones in use worldwide took 16 years to reach, but we forecast the next billion to be achieved in less than three years, by 2015.?
Analysts at the firm view the world's first modern smartphone as being the Nokia Communicator, a brick-clamshell hybrid device targeted mainly at business users, which kept the Finnish telecom company at the head of the pack until Apple released the iPhone in 2007.
?The iPhone revolutionized smartphone design and it catalyzed industry growth," said Strategy Analytics Senior Analyst Scott Bicheno. "By the third quarter of 2011, we estimate there were 708 million smartphones in use worldwide. After a further year of soaring demand, the number of smartphones in use worldwide reached 1.038 billion units during the third quarter of 2012.?
Source: Strategy Analytics
The study's findings are consistent with a statement made by Google's Eric Schmidt during an interview last week, though the executive went further and said Android alone is on pace to see one billion users within the next year.
While Strategy Analytics fails to breakdown the distribution of users by operating system, the sheer rate at which smartphones are being adopted is staggering.
The firm's executive director, Neil Mawston, estimates that 1 in 7 of the world's population owned a smartphone in the third quarter of 2012, and notes market penetration is still low.
?Most of the world does not yet own a smartphone and there remains huge scope for future growth, particularly in emerging markets such as China, India and Africa," Mawston said. "The first billion smartphones in use worldwide took 16 years to reach, but we forecast the next billion to be achieved in less than three years, by 2015.?
Comments
Yep. Sure.
smartphones were invented in 2007 we need another name for pre 2007 phones.
The entire population of the world is 7 billion and total mobile subscriptions amount to 6 billion, 1 billion of which are smartphones.
How many underaged kids are using mobile phones?
Apple has sold around 300 million iPhones.
Google said they had sold/shipped 400 million Android devices. There are about 100 million iPads out there and if that represents 70%, then there are about 40 million Android tablets so 360 million Android phones.
RIM has 80 million subscribers.
That's 740 million leaving 260 million for whatever else is called a smartphone. We know it can't be Windows Phones as they only sold about 15m so far. The rest is probably made up from some Nokia junk that will soon be replaced with an Android or iOS device.
Don't forget that Samsung sells smartphones with almost all the different smartphone systems including bada, don't forget palm and webos devices either.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Marvin
Apple has sold around 300 million iPhones.
Google said they had sold/shipped 400 million Android devices. There are about 100 million iPads out there and if that represents 70%, then there are about 40 million Android tablets so 360 million Android phones.
RIM has 80 million subscribers.
That's 740 million leaving 260 million for whatever else is called a smartphone. We know it can't be Windows Phones as they only sold about 15m so far. The rest is probably made up from some Nokia junk that will soon be replaced with an Android or iOS device.
Google actually claims 500M as of September. The 400 million figure was from June.
How about, "recycled phones"?
Quote:
Originally Posted by AnalogJack
smartphones were invented in 2007 we need another name for pre 2007 phones.
"If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants."
Don't be so quick to dismiss the ground work done by Psion, Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Palm and even Microsoft. Without their contributions the iPhone wouldn't be the amazing device that it is today. We might not even have an iPhone at all.
"One billion activations per day!"
That makes more sense as it only leaves 160m for the 'other' smartphones.
... and the Newton:
I'm sure that some of the products along the way added value but I think it's going too far to say that an iPhone wouldn't have happened without the other products. You can clearly see how an iPhone could have been a direct successor of the Newton and iPod.
Really expensive dumb phones.
Originally Posted by Marvin
And people say the iPad mini will go in a pocket…
And speaking of the Newton, I have my eMate 300 somewhere. Battery's dead, but runs just fine on AC, and I hear that its battery is just a bunch of 9 volts connected to one another, so I could build my own. Now that was a tabtop. Or, rather, a styletop, since you couldn't touch the screen.