Apple's mobile phone shipments nearly doubled in 2011, overtaking LG and ZTE
Click to enlarge. Source: IDC
On the strength of sales of the iPhone 4S last quarter, Apple (AAPL) jumped two spots in IDC's ranking of the world's five largest manufacturers of mobile phones -- smart or otherwise.
In a press release issued Wednesday, IDC reported that weakness in the demand for so-called feature phones dragged down market growth in the Christmas quarter -- usually the biggest -- to a mere 6.1% year over year, its lowest point in more than two years.
By contrast, smartphone sales continued to grow sharply, according to IDC's Kevin Restivo, who pointed to Apple's newest model as a key driver. iPhone shipments grew 96.2% in 2011 and 128.4% last quarter.
Although Apple's 6% share of worldwide shipments in 2011 trailed far behind Nokia's (NOK) 27% and Samsung's 21.3%, the company continues to capture a disproportional share of the profits. The last time Asymco's Horace Dediu surveyed the field -- in July 2011, before the release of the iPhone 4S -- Apple had a 5.6% share of units shipped but was sucking up nearly two-thirds of the world's mobile phone profits. See here.
Apple is the only bright spot in the industry's worst quarter in a decade
Source: Gartner. Chart: PED
Fourth quarter personal computer numbers for the U.S. market came in from Gartner and IDC Wednesday and for the second quarter in a row, Apple (AAPL) sales grew like gangbusters while the Microsoft (MSFT) Windows PC market actually shrank.
Apple sales in the U.S. were up 20.7%, according to Gartner, while HP (HPQ) was MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Jan 12, 2012 6:39 AM ET
IDC gives Apple an even bigger edge, with Mac's U.S. shipments outpacing PCs 80 to 1
Source: Gartner
Tim Cook may not have seen the latest numbers. Or perhaps he's just more modest than Steve Jobs was. But he understated matters somewhat when he told the press last week that the Mac outgrew the PC market almost six times in the year ending in June and that it had outpaced its MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Oct 13, 2011 7:25 AM ET
The worldwide tablet market grew 303.8% year over year, and it's mostly Apple's
Worldwide tablet market shares (by shipments). Source: IDC
Since IDC launched its Worldwide Quarterly Media Tablet and eReader Tracker in January, its coverage of the tablet market has been, shall we say, spotty.
Its tracking report for the first quarter of 2011 didn't arrive until July, causing serious confusion among some high-profile tech writers who mistook it for a MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Sep 15, 2011 9:31 AM ET
The next contender: Samsung, whose Android phones are gaining fast
Data: Strategy Analytics. Chart: PED
The companies that track mobile phone sales are just now catching up to the news that came out of Apple's (AAPL) last week. According to the company's Q3 earnings report, Apple sold nearly 20.24 million iPhones last quarter, up 142% from the same quarter last year.
On Thursday, IDC reported that that makes Apple the world's No. MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Jul 29, 2011 8:06 AM ET
A sampling of reactions to Apple's (AAPL) profits growing 125% year over year
IDC's Al Hilwa: "Apple's growth in the third quarter was simply jaw-dropping. In 20 years of following tech I have seen very few companies in the $90 to $100 billion run-rate and none that have produced 80% organic quarterly growth. The success of the iPad truly crystallizes the point that we are living in an era of rapid MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Jul 20, 2011 5:46 AM ET
A report from IDC sets off some pretty silly headlines in the tech press
Source: Techmeme
The top item on the closely-watched Techmeme news aggregator Saturday morning was a piece by ZDNet's Larry Dignan about how the shipments of tablet computers have failed to meet the industry's "lofty expectations."
It was a theme picked up by at least eight other news outlets, including VentureBeat ("Tablet sales slow"), The Loop ("'media tablet' market MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Jul 9, 2011 5:51 AM ET
Despite higher prices, sales to end users worldwide more than doubled
Data: Gartner. Charts: Apple 2.0
Gartner issued its "mobile devices" report for the first quarter of 2011, two weeks after rival IDC's.
Here's what Gartner had to say about Apple (AAPL):
Apple sold 16.9 million units to end users worldwide, more than doubling its sales of iPhones year-on-year. This market-beating growth came from all regions: the iPhone is now available in 90 MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - May 19, 2011 11:21 AM ET
The iPhone could be headed for No. 1 this year as it overtakes RIM and gains on Nokia
Click to enlarge. Source: IDC
The lead that Nokia (NOK) and Research in Motion (RIMM) have enjoyed for years in the smartphone market is evaporating rapidly, according to a report issued Thursday by IDC.
Their immediate problem is Apple (AAPL), which shipped 18.7 million iPhones in Q1 2011, more than double last year's shipments, MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - May 6, 2011 7:39 AM ET
Meanwhile, Nokia, Samsung and LG all lost market share, according to IDC
Source: IDC
Apple's 5% slice of the mobile phone pie chart at right, drawn from IDC numbers released Friday, may not look like much, but consider this:
IDC is counting shipments all over the world, not just the U.S.
IDC is talking about all mobiles, from cheap feature phones to high-end smartphones.
Apple's (AAPL) share grew more than twice as fast as MORE
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