Research firm International Data Corp. released reports detailing the movement of the smartphone industry in 2012 on Friday. The global sales of smartphones rose 36% in the fourth quarter of last year. About 219 million smartphones were sold worldwide, compared with 161 million in Q4 of 2011. This accounted to 45% of total number of phones shipped, the highest portion ever. PC shipments on the other hand dipped 6%, as more people bought smartphones over other gadgets during the holidays. Companies that make both phones and PC’s are taking these numbers as guidelines for 2013 production plans, but companies that rely solely on PC’s are going to face a tough year ahead.
IDC claims that 713 million smartphones were shipped in 2012, which represents a 44% year-on-year increase. PC shipments for the year were down by 3%. This is the first time that market has declined since 2001. Analysts predict that half the phones shipped next year will be smartphones. Smartphones’ growing popularity can be ascribed to the fact that they singularly carry out several functions that used to required different devices. Users can browse the web, email and take pictures, while continuing the regular phones functions like calling and texting.
Samsung emerged as the leader of the smartphone market with 64 million devices shipped, or 29 percent of the global market share. Apple was a distant second with 48 million iPhones shipped, amounting to 22 percent of the market. The remaining 49% of the market was very fragmented between Huawei, Nokia, HTC, Blackberry and several other phones. Chinese phone maker, Huawei was at number three with 5%.
Samsung’s success can be attributed to its aggressive innovation and release of new models, some of which carry better features than the iPhone. Users also prefer Samsung Galaxy S III’s wider screen. Further, Samsung has a presence in all price-ranges, not just the premium class. There is a large movement towards cheap smartphones, as was seen by the success of Huawei phones, and Apple does not cater to that segment at all. Apple, on the other hand, claims that Samsung plagiarized its technologies and slapped the South Korean tech company with a large patent suite. A San Jose, CA-based jury decided in favor of Apple last August and commanded Samsung to pay $1 billion in damages. Samsung is currently appealing to overturn that judgment.
You can purchase the Galaxy S III at a discounted price tag now starting at $0.01.
