We do not write because we want to; we write because we have to - Somerset Maugham
|
|
|
Smartphone market grew 79.7 per cent in the last year
THE BEANCOUNTERS at International Data Cooperation (IDC) have released figures showing massive growth in the smartphone market since the first quarter of 2010.
The numbers published by IDC show that the smartphone market has grown by 79.7 per cent over last year. According IDC this was due to vendors releasing highly anticipated models, good availability of older smartphones at affordable prices and sustained demand for the devices.
A total of 99.6m smartphone units were shipped in the first quarter of 2011, approaching double the 55.4m units shipped in the first quarter of 2010.
Ramon Llamas, a senior research analyst at IDC said, "Conditions in the smartphone market are creating a perfect storm for sustained smartphone growth."
It is certainly true that the smartphone market is buzzing with a large number of products being released by many different vendors. With each new smartphone comes more competition and phones are becoming more and more powerful and capable of doing more useful things.
Competition between these vendors can have both a positive and a negative effect. On the one hand the products need to be good for consumers to want to buy them, but on the other hand vendors can rush products to market, meaning quality is compromised.
We've started seeing handsets that have dual core processors, such as the Samsung Galaxy S II. And Motorola's latest handset called the Atrix is capable of powering a laptop dock with an 11in screen.
IDC said the leading five smartphone vendors based on first quarter 2011 results had a combined 76.7 per cent market share.
Nokia hung on to the top spot with 24.3 per cent, followed by Apple with 18.7 per cent, and RIM came in third place with 14 per cent.
Samsung and HTC came in fourth and fifth with 10.8 and 8.9 per cent market share, respectively.
Since the first quarter of 2010 there have been some notable shifts in the vendors' market shares.
Most noticeably, Nokia's market share dropped a whopping 14.5 per cent. Samsung and HTC market shares increased by 6.5 and 4.9 per cent, respectively, and Apple increased its market share by 3.0 per cent, while RIM's market share fell by 5.1 per cent. µ
Tags: Hardware
Share this:
Share
I am so glad for the smartphone market, because it caters to smart folk like me. I'm so important, I need to have instant access to all things internety all of the time. And it is SO cheap! Less than $100US per month not including the phone - who can't afford THAT piddly sum?
Apple went through the same sort of thing in the early 1990s—even as it lost its place as one of the world’s major PC makers, it was still making a handsome profit, so nobody worried.
Until the market share dropped to the point where it started to hurt profits. And by then, it was almost too late. It took Steve Jobs to come in and rescue the company.
Who will be Steve Jobs now?
As they have less than a quarter of the market share, it just goes to show how overpriced they are!
Or maybe they're making the profit by charging £135 to replace the front glass that seems to shatter incredibly easily. It might be highly resistant to scratches, but it seems to be incredibly brittle.
Answer: almost half of the profits generated in the smartphone market were captured by Apple.