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Market research firm IDC said that smartphones outsold PCs in the fourth quarter of 2010.
IDC said that 109.9 million smartphones shipped in Q4, up 87.2 per cent year on year and outpacing the 92.1 million PCs sold in the same period.
"Android continues to gain by leaps and bounds, helping to drive the smartphone market," said IDC mobile phone analyst Ramon Llamas.
"It has become the cornerstone of multiple vendors’ smartphone strategies, and has quickly become a challenger to market leader Symbian."
IDC said that rivals Windows Phone 7 and Symbian^3 had ramped up in the same period with Nokia shipping five million Symbian^3 devices while Windows Phone 7 vendors shipped more than 1.5 million smartphones.
Gains in the smartphone market are set to continue, with smartphone vendors extending devices into the mid-range and low-end markets while high-end devices will reduce in price helping to generate demand.
Top Five Smartphone Vendors, Shipments, and Market Share, Q4 2010 (Units in Millions)
Source: IDC Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, January 27, 2011.
Top Five Smartphone Vendors, Shipments, and Market Share, Calendar Year 2010 (Units in Millions)
Source: IDC Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, January 27, 2011.
