Market research firm IDC on Thursday released its smartphone market share numbers for the first quarter of 2011 and Apple is doing quite well.
[ad#Google Adsense 300×250 in story]According to the report, Apple only follows Nokia in worldwide shipments. Apple’s shipments grew from 8.7 million in 2010 to 18.7 million in 2011, an increase of 114.4 percent year-over-year.
“Apple reached a new record shipment volume in a single quarter, and inched closer to market leader Nokia with fewer than six million units separating the two companies,” wrote IDC in its report. “The company posted market-beating year-over-year growth and recorded triple-digit growth in two key markets: the United States, with the release of its CDMA-enabled iPhone, and Greater China. Additionally, the company enlisted South Korean Telecom and Saudi Telecom as carrier providers of the iPhone.
Apple’s market share grew from 15.7 percent to 18.7 percent in the last year.
The iPhone is doooooomed!
It is still genuinely staggering the change from 4years ago when the shipments were exactly zero, to *that* … and they just walked right in and did it. In any field that feat is worth applauding.
But wait, this comparison isn’t relevant. We’ve got to group together all Android phones! There should be iPhone, RIM, Nokia, all Windows phones and all Android phones!
And we can’t include other iOS devices, like some suggest. We’re comparing *phones* dammit! (And Xooms). That’s it! iPads, iPods don’t count, they’re not phones. You might as well compare a martini to a Mr. Spock action figure!
If you go by market share by make, Apple is 3rd. If you go by most growth in 1 year, its 4th. If you go by shipments in the first quarter this year its 2nd even with Verizon getting the iPhone in the States.
Thats very good considering there have really only been what I consider 5 phones in 4 years. 4 AT&T iPhones and the sole Verizon iPhone4.
Doing very good, but not quite as dominant as the headline would have you believe…
Thanks for the reading lesson. So allow me to return the favor.
The headline that you mention says the article is making a direct reference to the context of worldwide smartphone shipments. It doesn’t claim universal dominance.
The article is about the phone makers. Just the smartphones and the number of smart phones each maker has sold. Its not about the OS or the platforms that Fandroids and Fanboys like to harp about!
So only report on the best statistics while ignoring the weaker ones, such as being 4th in growth?