Sales of smartphones surged ahead in the final quarter of 2011, up 47 per cent according to a new report from market analysts Gartner.
149 million smartphones shipped in the last three months of 2011 with nearly half a billion for the full year. Apple managed to overtake LG to become the third largest maker of mobile phones worldwide and the top single manufacturer of smartphones with 19 per cent of the market.
Google's Android OS continued a bull run in popularity worldwide with just over half of all smartphones shipping with the open source mobile OS. Microsoft managed just 1.9 per cent, down from 3.4 per cent a year earlier.
"Western Europe and North America led most of the smartphone growth for Apple during the fourth quarter of 2011," said Gartner analyst Roberta Cozza.
"In Western Europe the spike in iPhone sales in the fourth quarter saved the overall smartphone market after two consecutive quarters of slow sales."
Chinese Android upstarts ZTE and Huawei were, after Apple, the fastest growing phone makers. Perhaps surprisingly, South Korean LG bucked the Android trend and slipped substantially, down to 4.9 per cent of the market from the heights of 7.1 per cent a year before.
LG's market share collapse was more dramatic than that of RIM and the Blackberry which only slipped from 3.1 to 2.9 per cent in a year.
Gartner noted that Nokia's launch of the Lumia 710 and 800 Windows Phone devices did not realise the sales that would have arrested Microsoft's fall in smartphone market share. Something they'll doubtless be trying to address in 2012.
Advertisement
Related Stories
- The Apple iPhone 5 rumour mill May 25th 2012 at 2:50PM
- Developer fined £50,000 over fake Angry Birds app May 25th 2012 at 12:28PM
- Via Technologies release Android PC to rival the Raspberry Pi May 25th 2012 at 10:30AM
- Yahoo unveils innovative search software for Apple May 24th 2012 at 2:27PM
- Apple tells Siri complainers to get a different phone May 18th 2012 at 12:13PM
- A third of UK mobile owners read marketing emails May 18th 2012 at 9:37AM
- iPhone 5 'bigger screen' rumours gather pace May 17th 2012 at 2:13PM
- Google's multi-Nexus Android strategy May 16th 2012 at 12:56AM
- Java judge will not rule on Android "fair use" May 11th 2012 at 1:52AM
Add a new comment
You need to be logged in to post comments. If you do not have an account then please register.
Comments
0 comments
There are no comments yet, be the first to add one!