TELECOMS & MOBILE
Apple crashes the smart phone charts
05-02-2008
by Stephen Errity
Apple's iPhone has helped make the company the number three manufacturer of smart mobile devices worldwide.
The California-based company shipped just over 2.3 million devices in the fourth quarter of last year, giving it a 6.5 percent market share, according to research firm Canalys. Apple placed third behind Nokia (52.9 percent) and RIM (11.4 percent) and just nosed ahead of Motorola in fourth. This is being seen as a significant achievement for Apple, given that the iPhone is on the market for less than a year and is available in only four marketplaces worldwide (the US, the UK, Germany and France).
"Apple has shown very clearly that it can make a difference and has sent a wakeup call to the market leaders," said Pete Cunningham, a senior analyst at Canalys. "What it must demonstrate now is that it can build a sustainable business in the converged device space, expanding its coverage and product portfolio. It will also need to ensure that the exclusive relationships that got it so far so quickly do not prove to be a limit on what it can achieve."
These latest figures from research firm Canalys also show a jump of more than 50 percent in the total number of smart mobile devices shipped between 2006 and 2007, with 118 million shipped last year. The Asia-Pacific region took the greatest amount of units, just ahead of Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA).
America is the fastest-growing market for the devices, with shipments doubling there between 2006 and 2007. Canalys says that overall, smart mobile devices represent one of the fastest-growing sectors of the technology industry, counting for around 10 percent of the total global mobile market last year and enjoying annual sectoral growth of around 60 percent.
Elsewhere, Symbian remains the dominant provider of operating system software for smart phones, with 67 percent of devices shipped carrying its software. Microsoft is a distant second in this area with a 12 percent share, ahead of RIM, Apple and Linux.
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