Apple's iPhone 3G has been a huge success
iPhone sales give Apple 2nd place in global market
/v3-uk/news/1997258/iphone-sales-apple-2nd-global-market
07 Nov 2008, Daniel Robinson , V3
Apple is now the second largest smartphone vendor globally, according to figures from research firm Canalys, pushing BlackBerry maker Research In Motion (RIM) into third place.
The introduction of the iPhone 3G in July has proved a great success, with nearly seven million devices shipped during the third quarter of 2008, representing a 17.3 per cent share of the market, Canalys found.
Defying the effects of the credit crunch, overall smartphone shipments hit a new high of about 40 million devices, an increase of 28 per cent on the same period last year.
And despite being pushed into second place, BlackBerry shipments still grew by over 80 per cent, with RIM claiming a 15.2 per cent share of the market.
Nokia was still the unchallenged leader of the market with over 15 million units and a 38.4 per cent market share, but the Finnish giant saw a slight fall in shipments for the first time.
"Nokia is transitioning from some very successful volume drivers, like the N95 and E65, to a number of successors such as the flagship N96, and shipments of these new models have not yet ramped up," said Tim Shepherd of Canalys.
With Motorola in fourth place, largely thanks to its Linux-based handsets, closely followed by HTC with Windows Mobile, the top five vendors are largely allied to a different platform.
Looking ahead, Canalys predicts that Symbian will remain the dominant platform, but that it could be a tough fight between the other operating systems.
RIM is also likely to see a bounce back in the fourth quarter when its new BlackBerry Bold and BlackBerry Storm models begin to ship in greater volume.
© Incisive Media Investments Limited 2010, Published by Incisive Financial Publishing Limited, Haymarket House, 28-29 Haymarket, London SW1Y 4RX, are companies registered in England and Wales with company registration numbers 04252091 & 04252093
Do you agree?
OH REALLY!!!!! Steve? Anyone? Bueller?
Ballmer: iPhone has 'no chance'
The iPhone has no hope of gaining a true foothold in the cellphone marketplace, according to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. The company head told an interviewer at the USA Today that, as with computers, future control of the mobile handset business would primarily depend on software influence rather than hardware. Apple's insistence on attaching its code to a premium device could prevent it from getting any more than a small percentage of the world's cellphone user base, Ballmer predicted.
"Would I trade 96% of the market for 4% of the market? I want to have products that appeal to everybody," he said. "We'll get a chance to go through this [Apple versus Microsoft debate] again in phones and music players. There's no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share. No chance. It's a $500 subsidized item. They may make a lot of money. But if you actually take a look at the 1.3 billion phones that get sold, I'd prefer to have our software in 60% or 70% or 80% of them, than I would to have 2% or 3%, which is what Apple might get."
He also suggested that Apple might be creating too narrow a focus by stressing media playback on the iPhone instead of the possibilities of a general operating system such as Windows Mobile. The heavily-rumored Zune phone was again dismissed as impossible and against the company's mobile product philosophy.
"We wouldn't define our phone experience just by music. A phone is really a general purpose device," he summarized. "You want to make telephone calls, you want to get and receive messages, text, e-mail, whatever your preference is."
The iPod's success in the world of strictly entertainment-oriented handhelds was downplayed. Apple "got out early" with a good mix of media player hardware and software, according to Ballmer, but there was still an opportunity for the Zune line to have its own success. Its sales campaign would be "less edgy" and appeal to more buyers, he said. The remark appeared to ignore the company's existing campaigns, which have included Adult Swim and graffiti-themed limited runs of the player.
Microsoft currently holds a small but substantial portion of the cellphone OS business, which is currently dominated by variants on the open-source Symbian. The Zune's share has largely remained locked at roughly 9 percent of the US hard disk-based media player market since its introduction in November 2006.
iJah420 Says Ballmer eat your words!!!
Posted by iJah420, 07 Nov 2008