Massive fourth-quarter sales of the iPhone
4S helped Apple reclaim its crown as the world's top smartphone
maker, as global smartphone sales jumped 55 percent on the same
period last year, according to a report published Tuesday by research
firm IDC.
Customers around the world snapped up a total 158 million
smartphones in the quarter, compared to 102 million in the last three
months of the previous year, with Apple's 37 million iPhones leading
the way.
"By the end of the quarter, one out of every three mobiles phones
shipped worldwide was a smartphone," said IDC senior research analyst
Ramon Llamas in a statement.
"The launch of Apple's iPhone 4S played a key role in smartphone
growth to capture pent-up demand, and smartphone launches from other
vendors also provided a broad selection to meet varying preferences
and budgets."
Llamas said falling smartphone prices and consumer desire to
upgrade to more powerful models were the main factors behind the
global smartphone surge.
Despite Apple's late year sales spike, Samsung still sold the most
smartphones in 2011, shipping a total of 94 million, compared to
Apple's 93.2 million, the report said.
In total, customers bought 491.6 million smartphones last year, up
61 per cent on the 304.7 million they bought in 2010.
Nokia was the big loser of the year, as its market share slumped
by more than 50 percent to 12.4 percent, while Blackberry
manufacturer Research in Motion saw its market share drop from 14 per
cent to 8 per cent.
A separate study by the NPD group published Tuesday found that
Apple and Android devices accounted for more than 90 percent of the
smartphone market, with Android accounting for 48 percent of the
market.
The Google-powered operating system was especially strong among
first-time smartphone buyers, 57 percent of whom purchased Android
phones, the report said.
