Smartphone Sales Up 24 Percent, iPhone’s Share Nearly Doubled Last Year (Gar…

Based on this Gartner report it looks like the smartphones are healthy, yes they rose 24% YoY, but if you look at the numbers closely, they form only 14% of total mobile phone sales, increasing from 11% in 2008. Clearly there is still room for growth. However, I wonder how much different this picture would be were it not for the recession? In other words, would smartphone have constituted just 14% of the total mobile sales worldwide? I doubt it. My point is that the hockey stick for smartphone growth is yet to come. I would think that is going to happen in 2012 assuming that recovery is complete by the end of this year and worldwide economies grow.

Smartphone Sales Up 24 Percent, iPhone’s Share Nearly Doubled Last Year (Gartner)

via TechCrunch by Erick Schonfeld on 2/23/10

Last year, Apple’s iPhone nearly doubled its worldwide market share of smartphone sales to 14.4 percent, up 6.2 points from the year before, according to the latest market share figures put out by Gartner.  The iPhone still trails behind Nokia’s Symbian-powered smartphones (No. 1), which saw their share decline 5.5 points to 46.9 percent, and RIM Blackberries (No. 2), which gained 3.3 points to end the year with a 19.9 percent share.

Remember, these are worldwide estimates.  In the U.S., both Blackberry and Apple are much larger than Symbian.  And when it comes to mobile Web traffic, Apple and Android dominate with 81 percent share.  According to Gartner, Android phone sales jumped 3.4 points (to 3.9 percent), but Android is still smaller than WIndows Mobile or Linux.  Those mobile OSes, however, saw their market share drop  3.1 and 2.9 percent, respectively.  Palm’s WebOS barely made a mark with 0.7 percent share.

So when you tally everything up, Symbian lost the most share (5.5 percent), followed by Windows Mobile and Linux.  The iPhone saw the biggest gain (6.2 percent), compared to smaller but roughly equal jumps by Blackberry and Android (up 3.3 and 3.4 percent, respectively).

All together, Gartner estimates 172 million smartphones were sold last year, up 24 percent.  In contrast, total mobile phone sales were flat at 1.2 billion.  Smartphones represented 14 percent of total mobile handset sales last year, up from 11 percent in 2008.  The iPhone, for all of its growth, made up only 2 percent of all mobile phone sales last year. Below are the market share tables from Gartner:

Table 2
Worldwide Smartphone Sales to End Users by Operating System in 2009 (Thousands of Units)

Company	2009 Units	2009 Market Share (%)	2008 Units	2008 Market Share (%)
Symbian	80,878.6	46.9	72,933.5	52.4
Research In Motion	34,346.6	19.9	23,149.0	16.6
iPhone OS	24,889.8	14.4	11,417.5	8.2
Microsoft Windows Mobile	15,027.6	8.7	16,498.1	11.8
Linux	8,126.5	4.7	10,622.4	7.6
Android	6,798.4	3.9	640.5	0.5
WebOS	1,193.2	0.7	NA	NA
Other OSs	1,112.4	0.6	4,026.9	2.9
Total	172,373.1	100.0	139,287.9	100.0

Source: Gartner (February 2010)

Table 1
Worldwide Mobile Terminal Sales to End Users in 2009 (Thousands of Units)

Company	2009 Sales	2009 Market Share (%)	2008 Sales	2008 Market Share (%)
Nokia	440,881.6	36.4	472,314.9	38.6
Samsung	235,772.0	19.5	199,324.3	16.3
LG	122,055.3	10.1	102,789.1	8.4
Motorola	58,475.2	4.8	106,522.4	8.7
Sony Ericsson	54,873.4	4.5	93,106.1	7.6
Others	299,179.2	24.7	248,196.1	20.3
Total	1,211,236.6	100.0	1,222,252.9	100.0

Note* This table includes iDEN shipments, but excludes ODM to OEM shipments.
Source: Gartner (February 2010)

CrunchBase Information

iPhone 3G

Android

Research In Motion

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NYTimes.com: Microsoft Starts Over in Phone Software

This page was sent to you by:  leodnardo@yahoo.com TECHNOLOGY   | February 15, 2010 Microsoft Starts Over in Phone Software By ASHLEE VANCE Microsoft unveiled a new version of its flagship smartphone software on Monday, now called Windows Phone. Copyright 2010  The New York Times Company | Privacy Policy

LG announces 3 new phones in time for MWC

In time for the Mobile World Congress, LG has announced 3 new phones. Sure, there will be more announcements from LG when MWC begins, but these are updates or addition to existing phones for the masses.

GD880 Mini is the “smalllest and slimmest” 3.2-inches touchscreen phone with 7.2HSPDA, WiFi, A-GPS, a nd 5Mpxl camera stuffed into the small package. It also makes social networking a breeze with Social Network Connect and Social Network Feed which are tied to the Social Address Book.

The GT350 replaces the KS360 aka Neon. This little puppy comes with QWERTY slide-out keyboard.

The GD880 Mini will be available in Europe next month (to be followed by other markets) while the GT350 will be available in April.

And then there is the Cookie Plus. This device is clearly targeted at tweens and early teens with fun colors and “Cartoon-like UI” with 18 themes. It comes with 3Mpxl camera, FM tuner, social media support and several other widgets.

LG GD880 and GT350

LG Cookie Plus

[Via BoyGeniusReport]

Hey Sports Fan, get your Pumas on!

Puma along with Sagem is getting ready to announce a sports-centric, solar powered cell phone at the next week’s Mobile World Congress. According to the teaser site, this phone will have a solar-panel at the back and a solar-meter app. In addition, it cannot be a sports-centric phone without some sport-centric apps like pedometer, bike and run tracking meter, sports-news app, and apps to access PUMA World, the online Puma Community, Puma branded games and product info. It also has conventional smartphone apps like video chat and photo sharing, which implies dual cameras – front and back, gps, and a “music turntable”. You can see the teaser site here.  No word on OS, release date or pricing yet.

[Via MobileCrunch]