IDC says smartphones grew 79.7%, Apple takes #2 spot behind Nokia

Posted:
in iPhone edited January 2014
Apple outpaced the smartphone industry's average growth of 79.7 percent in the first calendar quarter of 2011 to edge out RIM as the second largest producer of smartphones behind Nokia.



Apple sold 18.7 million iPhones in the quarter, giving it an 18.7 percent share of the market, which happened to total almost exactly 100 million devices. That put Apple within 6 million units of first place Nokia, which grew only 12.6 percent over the year ago quarter, dropping its leading share of the smartphone market from 38.8 percent to just 24.3 percent.



IDC commented that "as Nokia transitions from Symbian to Windows Phone, it may find itself in danger of ceding market share as the competition ramps up smartphone production."



RIM grew by just 31.1 percent, less than half the industry average, while Samsung grew by a tremendous 350 percent, although it was growing from sales of just 2.4 million a year ago, and is still less than half the size of Apple as a smartphone vendor.



IDC remarked that Samsung is producing Android phones in addition to its own Bada-powered Wave devices and Windows Phone 7 models running software licensed from Microsoft. The firm said sales of all three platforms "continued to gain traction."



HTC also grew its sales dramatically by 229.6 percent, although it too started with shipments of just 2.7 million last year. Other smartphone makers grew by 143.7 percent collectively, and amount to 23.2 percent of the market.







Apple fourth among all mobile phones sold



IDC announced last week that Apple was fourth among all vendors of mobile phones, behind Nokia, Samsung, and LG, although Apple posted outstanding growth of 114.9 percent, while the top three vendors grew by just 8.9 percent (Samsung), remained flat (Nokia, with 0.6 percent growth) or contracted (LG, which lost 9.6 percent of its sales volume compared to the year ago quarter.



Overall growth in mobile phones was just 19.8 percent, far less than the huge surge in demand pushing sales of smartphones among consumers globally.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 19
    christopher126christopher126 Posts: 4,366member
    Who in their right mind would buy a Windows phone? Ugh!
  • Reply 2 of 19
    Dead in the water, indeed.
  • Reply 3 of 19
    solipsismsolipsism Posts: 25,726member
    So 1/20 phones sold through out the world was an iPhone and about 1/6 smartphones was an iPhone? Is the average ARP $624?
  • Reply 4 of 19
    anantksundaramanantksundaram Posts: 20,403member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by solipsism View Post


    So 1/20 phones sold through out the world was an iPhone and about 1/6 smartphones was an iPhone? Is the average ARP $624?



    Why would you be surprised by that? I would have guessed $600 at least.



    (Unless, of course, you were asking a rhetorical question.)
  • Reply 5 of 19
    sockrolidsockrolid Posts: 2,789member
    Someone has predicted that Apple will be the world's first trillion dollar company, in terms of market capitalization. I put the over / under at 4 years from now.
  • Reply 6 of 19
    tobiwantobiwan Posts: 73member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by christopher126 View Post


    Who in their right mind would buy a Windows phone? Ugh!



    Someone that is looking for a new phone and the sales rep needs a smartphone sale. So the person gets a windows smartphone for free and the cheapest data plan. Simple interface mainly used for calls but other things if needed once in a while.
  • Reply 7 of 19
    alfiejralfiejr Posts: 1,524member
    putting Nokia's obsolete Symbian "smartphones" in the same category with iOS (and Android) smartphones is plain stupid. same is true of the RIM BB phones except the Storm and Torch.
  • Reply 8 of 19
    firefly7475firefly7475 Posts: 1,502member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by christopher126 View Post


    Who in their right mind would buy a Windows phone? Ugh!



    I'd buy one in a heartbeat if I couldn't have my iPhone.



    Even with the iPhone I'd have to consider WP7 as an alternative if Microsoft had a mobile tablet as good as the iPad... I highly doubt I would actually go with it, but I'd at least spend the time to weigh up the pros and cons.



    Lots of hypotheticals in that answer
  • Reply 9 of 19
    firefly7475firefly7475 Posts: 1,502member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Tobiwan View Post


    Someone that is looking for a new phone and the sales rep needs a smartphone sale. So the person gets a windows smartphone for free and the cheapest data plan. Simple interface mainly used for calls but other things if needed once in a while.



    I dare you to find a sales rep pushing WP7.



    Microsoft have the same problem as Apple in this respect. For whatever reason sales reps seem hell bent on pushing Android.
  • Reply 10 of 19
    quinneyquinney Posts: 2,528member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by SockRolid View Post


    Someone has predicted that Apple will be the world's first trillion dollar company, in terms of market capitalization. I put the over / under at 4 years from now.



    So, if they don't issue any more shares, the price of AAPL will be about $1100 per share?
  • Reply 11 of 19
    joindupjoindup Posts: 80member
    I wish Daniel would add a column to these tables:



    Number of handset models produced.



    Listing " 1 " next to Apple would really counterpoint the other data.
  • Reply 12 of 19
    Yea, the sales people push Android so hard. I don't understand why either.



    A friend of mine was going to buy the iPhone 4, he doesn't know anything about tech but the salesman steered him to an Atrix and told him what is so good about it is that with Apple you have to plug it in to get the software updates but with Android it just does it automatically.



    Of course he doesn't mention that when the iPhone has an update you can get it immediately and with Android it could take a long time if it even comes at all. How many Android handsets are completely abandoned and are never going to receive an update?



    Then when he said he wanted the iPhone but asked about 4G they told him that when the new iPhone software comes out it will turn 4G on for the iPhone 4. Such misinformation! He was told that by two different reps at two different AT&T locations.
  • Reply 13 of 19
    foxhunter101foxhunter101 Posts: 113member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Captainobvvious View Post


    Yea, the sales people push Android so hard. I don't understand why either.



    A friend of mine was going to buy the iPhone 4, he doesn't know anything about tech but the salesman steered him to an Atrix and told him what is so good about it is that with Apple you have to plug it in to get the software updates but with Android it just does it automatically.



    Of course he doesn't mention that when the iPhone has an update you can get it immediately and with Android it could take a long time if it even comes at all. How many Android handsets are completely abandoned and are never going to receive an update?



    Then when he said he wanted the iPhone but asked about 4G they told him that when the new iPhone software comes out it will turn 4G on for the iPhone 4. Such misinformation! He was told that by two different reps at two different AT&T locations.



    AT&T sales reps are pretty much worthless. I'm fortunate to be near 2 Apple stores so whenever I need an iPhone, that's where I go.....Apple store. I don't have have to deal with a bunch of bozo's and a lot of misinformation at an AT&T store.

    I'm sure there's a good sales rep there somewhere, I just never found any..........
  • Reply 14 of 19
    xsuxsu Posts: 401member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Captainobvvious View Post


    Yea, the sales people push Android so hard. I don't understand why either.



    ...



    Because they don't want an inventory of old Android phones stuck in their warehouse. With iPhone, you can sell it throughout the year. But for Android phones, you have to sell them as quickly as you get them, otherwise, a new model might pop up and render your inventory old junk.
  • Reply 15 of 19
    hittrj01hittrj01 Posts: 753member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Firefly7475 View Post


    I dare you to find a sales rep pushing WP7.



    Microsoft have the same problem as Apple in this respect. For whatever reason sales reps seem hell bent on pushing Android.



    It's because companies like HTC, Motorola (especially Motorola), Samsung, etc. give out way higher SPIFFs (commission) than Apple, and since the hardware manufacturers don't have to give Google the same money they have to give Microsoft, they pass on higher SPIFFs to the dealers. The salesman gets a higher commission from selling an Android phone compared to Windows or iPhone, and will naturally sell Android because that is what is going to put more money in his pocket. You can't blame the salesman, they are just trying to get as much money as they can. You the consumer are doing the same exact thing by trying to get something for as little money as possible. It's called capitalism.
  • Reply 16 of 19
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by hittrj01 View Post


    It's because companies like HTC, Motorola (especially Motorola), Samsung, etc. give out way higher SPIFFs (commission) than Apple, and since the hardware manufacturers don't have to give Google the same money they have to give Microsoft, they pass on higher SPIFFs to the dealers. The salesman gets a higher commission from selling an Android phone compared to Windows or iPhone, and will naturally sell Android because that is what is going to put more money in his pocket. You can't blame the salesman, they are just trying to get as much money as they can. You the consumer are doing the same exact thing by trying to get something for as little money as possible. It's called capitalism.



    It's the carriers that are paying the sales commissions, not vendors. But you are correct, carriers pay higher commissions (or bounties) on other phones than iPhones. Why? Carriers already subsidizing iPhone more than other smartphones, and iPhones pretty much sell themselves and don't need heavy sales support due to high awareness and visibility. Thus, carriers rather save the sales commission costs and apply those towards more subsidy.



    Second, carriers enter into agreements with handset vendors for first crack on new high-profile devices- i.e. Atrix and Thunderbolt. Generally, carriers agree to achieving a set unit volume level in return for first dibs and/or requested features. Thus, if the carrier doesn't meet its target, it will be stuck with unwanted inventory when that device becomes widely available. Hot potato if you will.



    I know at BBY, AT&T doesn't pay a bounty on the iPhone, probably true for other retailer such as RSH & WMT. On all other smartphones, the bounty can be as much as $150. That's why you see Amazon sometimes selling smartphones $100-$200 less than carriers' retail stores. However, in absence of a bounty, Apple provides retailers a healthy markup opposed to the near zero markup found with other handsets.



    Verizon has heavily pushed HTC Thunderbolt and AT&T the Moto Atrix. However, I have heard this leads to much higher return rates for those Hero devices since sometimes it's not best choice for customer.
  • Reply 17 of 19
    jfanningjfanning Posts: 3,398member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Alfiejr View Post


    putting Nokia's obsolete Symbian "smartphones" in the same category with iOS (and Android) smartphones is plain stupid. same is true of the RIM BB phones except the Storm and Torch.



    Come on Melgross, get ready to start your defending.



    What is missing from Symbian that doesn't put it in the same category as iOS and Android?
  • Reply 18 of 19
    jfanningjfanning Posts: 3,398member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by joindup View Post


    I wish Daniel would add a column to these tables:



    Number of handset models produced.



    Listing " 1 " next to Apple would really counterpoint the other data.



    ok melgross, I hope you have that keyboard warmed up.



    Joindup, if I go to the apple site, I see three phones listed, since Apple doesn't split sales by model, which one is the seller?
  • Reply 19 of 19
    josiahljosiahl Posts: 6member
    You also gotta realize that back in 2007 the people who had iphones were younger and early adults! Now adutls and even grand parents use iphones and even children! You gotta love the upgrades in society!
Sign In or Register to comment.