Apple's iPhone has topped Microsoft's Windows Mobile in U.S. market share of smartphone operating systems for the first time, putting it in the No. 2 spot, according to a report from ComScore released Thursday.
In February, 5.2 million respondents to ComScore's survey reported using Apple's iPhone, while 6.8 million reported using phones running Microsoft's Windows Mobile, according to a report on FierceDeveloper. ComScore, a market research firm, averages results in a three-month period.
In May, Apple's number rose to 5.7 million, then 6.6 million in July, and finally to a high of 8.9 million for October, the most recent period for which results are available. In comparison, Microsoft rose in May to 7 million, dropped in July to 6.6 million, and went back up in October to 7.1 million.
The highest market share numbers in the survey go to Research In Motion's BlackBerry. It registered 9.6 million in February, 12.2 million in May, 13 million in July, and 14.9 million in October.
It's interesting to note that Palm's number rose from 2.3 million to 2.8 million in 2009, and Google's Android operating system rose to a high of 1 million by October.
The survey asked U.S. mobile subscribers, who had to be over the age of 13, what type of phone they use. ComScore then figured out what operating system they were using and calculated the data for the report.
Consumer demand for smartphones seems to be unstoppable.
In the third quarter, vendors shipped a record 43.3 million devices, up 4.2 percent from last year's third quarter and up 3.2 percent from this year's second quarter, says a report released Thursday by market researcher IDC.
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IDC)
Among smartphone vendors, Nokia still enjoys the greatest market share, according to IDC, with a 37.9 percent slice for the third quarter. ... Read more
A recent survey shows that while Research In Motion continues to lead as the smartphone of choice among consumers, Apple's iPhone is quickly catching up.
ChangeWave Research on Tuesday released the results of its week-long September survey of 4,255 consumers, which showed that RIM retains its lead in smartphone ownership with 40 percent market share. That's actually a dip of 1 percentage point since the last survey in June, and the lowest share RIM has registered in two years.
Despite having more models of smartphones, RIM is facing serious competition from Apple, whose iPhone has 30 percent market share among those surveyed. That's an increase of 5 percentage points since June, when the new iPhone 3GS was released.
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ChangeWave Research)
Among the same group, Palm has maintained a 7 percent share since June. Though it didn't see any growth even with the introduction of the Palm Pre and more recently the Pixi, the two new WebOS-based phones are helping the company to not lose share. Palm has seen its market share of smartphone ownership erode steadily from its peak of 36 percent in June 2006.
When including all manufacturers, the smartphone market is clearly gaining momentum. ChangeWave reports that 39 percent of those polled in September now own a smartphone, an increase of 2 percentage points since June, but more importantly, double the ownership of consumers polled two years ago.
And that momentum is something that PC makers are taking notice of, according to research also released Tuesday from Gartner. The analyst firm believes that more PC makers will start making smartphones to tap into those consumer dollars being spent in that segment. There's far more opportunity for them to court first-time smartphone owners than first-time laptop owners.
Smartphone revenue is expected to reach $191 million by 2012, which is more money than the $152 million users are expected to spend on laptops, according to Gartner. Apple, Sony, Dell, and Acer are the device makers that currently, or have announced they will, sell laptops as well as smartphones.
It was a good second quarter for Apple's iPhone as the company maintained third place in global sales among smartphone companies, according to a new report from market research firm Gartner.
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Apple)
In fact, Apple had the largest gains in the smartphone market, selling more than 5.4 million iPhones in the second quarter of 2009 compared to 892,000 in the second quarter of 2008, according to Gartner. First reported by AppleInsider, the increase in sales boosted Apple's market share for the category to 13.3 percent from 2.8 percent in the same period in 2008.
Gartner cited Apple's lowering the price on the 8GB iPhone 3G and its expanding into more countries as having a "clear effect on sales volumes." To put the iPhone numbers in perspective, Apple sold more iPhones during the launch weekend in June for the iPhone 3GS than it sold for the entire second quarter of 2008. (Apple released the iPhone 3G in the third quarter of last year.)
The top company in the market is Nokia, which sold 18.4 million devices for a 45 percent market share. That share is down, however, from a 47.4 percent share in the second quarter of 2008. Research In Motion, maker of the BlackBerry, sold 7.6 million devices, finishing out the quarter with 18.7 percent of the market, up from a 17.3 percent share during the same period last year.
Worldwide, mobile phone sales totaled 268.1 million for the second quarter, down 6.1 percent over the same period last year. However, the smartphone category increased 27 percent year over year, with 40 million devices sold.
It appears that Apple's good fortunes will continue. Roberta Cozza, principal analyst at Gartner, said that since the iPhone was released late in the quarter, "its full potential will only start to show in the sales figures in the second half of 2009."
BlackBerry Desktop software, currently available only for Windows, is coming to the Mac.
(Credit: RIM)At long last, Research In Motion is bringing its BlackBerry Desktop software to Mac OS X.
In a blog post on Monday, RIM announced that a version of its smartphones' desktop software will be released this September for Apple computers.
According to the smartphone maker, users will be able to sync their iTunes playlists, calendars, contacts, notes, and tasks from their Mac. They will also have the option of adding applications, updating the BlackBerry when new software is made available, and managing multiple handsets on their Apple computers.
BlackBerry Mac software will let you sync your BlackBerry with iTunes.
(Credit: RIM)Although users will be excited to know BlackBerry software is finally coming to their Mac, some of those users might not be satisfied. RIM said only Mac OS X versions 10.5.5 and up will be supported, meaning that Mac users who haven't updated Leopard or those running Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger likely won't be able to run the software.
Unlike iPhone software, which can be installed in both Windows PCs and Macs, RIM's BlackBerry software has been available only for Windows; a third-party tool has been required to enable communication between Macs and BlackBerrys.
If you want to be notified when the software is available when it's released in September, you'll need to sign up on RIM's Mac page.
Apple and Research In Motion bring in big bucks from their smartphones, thanks in large part to heavy subsidies from the cellphone carriers, says a report in Monday's Wall Street Journal.
Last year Apple and RIM made up only 3 percent of global cellphone sales, but took in 35 percent of operating profits for the market, according to Deutsche Bank analyst Brian Modoff. This year Modoff expects the cellphone market for the two firms to grow to 5 percent, and winning 58 percent of total operating profits, according to the Journal (subscription required).
The high subsidies charged by major players like Apple and RIM mean that consumers can pay as little as $100 for a smartphone. The iPhone brings Apple the biggest subsidy check at around $400 a phone, estimates Modoff. RIM's BlackBerrys earn the company around a $200 subsidy. In contrast, basic cellphones get a $100 subsidy.
The cellphone carriers pass on the subsidies to consumers in the form of higher prices for monthly plans, especially for smartphones that can browse the Internet and collect e-mail.
The market gains by Apple reflect a shift toward smartphones that are feature rich and easy to use, says the Journal. Smartphones make up only around 13 percent of global cellphone sales, but the market is growing. Between them, Apple and RIM scored around 32 percent of the smartphone market in the first quarter.
The windfall among Apple and RIM comes at the expense of other players, says the Journal. Nokia, once the top smartphone maker, has been hit with a declining market share and lower profits. Sony Ericsson also is hurting, reporting a loss for its fourth quarter. Companies like Palm, Acer, and Dell also face an uphill battle breaking into a smartphone market dominated by Apple and RIM.
Apple's recently released iPhone 3GS pulled out a victory in Consumer Reports' latest smartphone showdown.
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Apple)
In handing the iPhone the top spot in this year's smartphone list, Consumer Reports on Wednesday praised the iPhone 3GS for its "superior display, reinforced by top-notch multimedia, navigation, Web browsing, and battery life." However, the iPhone didn't win in all of the categories.
Consumer Reports gave high marks to the Palm Pre and BlackBerry for their messaging functionality. The organization also praised the Pre as a "superior multitasker" for its "deck-of-cards handling of multiple applications."
In light of the changing features and needs of the smartphone category, Consumer Reports changed some of the criteria for this year's showdown. The changes helped some older phones--like the iPhone 3G--move up in the rankings, while other phones--like the Samsung Blackjack II and BlackBerry Pearl Flip--dropped due to the changes.
Changes include putting more emphasis on things like the display, navigation, multimedia, and messaging, while putting less of an emphasis on features such as talk time and voice quality.
It's unclear how the iPhone 3GS would have rated, had MMS messaging been available from AT&T at the time of the tests. AT&T said functionality would be available sometime this summer.
The full report is available to Consumer Reports subscribers.
If there was any doubt about the popularity of Apple's iPhone, a quick look at the latest market share figures from research firm Gartner should put them to rest.
Released on Wednesday, the newest data from Gartner shows that Apple's share of worldwide smartphone sales grew from 5.3 percent in the first quarter of 2008 to 10.8 percent in the first quarter of 2009. In terms of unit sales, Apple jumped from 1.7 million in the first quarter of 2008 to 3.9 million during the same period in 2009.
While the quarter's iPhone adoption metrics may be impressive, Apple wasn't the only smartphone maker with big gains. Research In Motion saw its BlackBerry market share rise from 13.3 percent in first quarter of 2008 to 19.9 percent in 2009. The company's unit sales grew from 4.3 million to 7.2 million over the same period.
Nokia saw its market share drop almost 4 percent, from 45.1 percent in first quarter of 2008 to 41.2 percent in 2009. Despite the decline, Nokia remains the world's No. 1 smartphone maker, followed by Research In Motion and Apple.
Gartner analyst Roberta Cozza said growth in the smartphone category was driven by touch-screen products such as the iPhone and BlackBerry Storm, and credited "tighter integration with applications and services around music, mobile e-mail, and Internet browsing," as key factors to growth.
Although traditional mobile-phone sales still dominate the market, a clear shift is under way. Mobile-phone sales for the first quarter of 2009 totaled 269.1 million, a drop of 9.4 percent over the same period last year.
Smartphone sales for the first quarter of 2009 were 36.4 million, representing a 12.7 percent increase over the first quarter of 2008.
AT&T may slash the price of its iPhone service plan by $10 when a new version of the touchscreen smartphone is launched this summer, according to a story on TheStreet.com.
The article cited analyst Michael Cote of Cote Collaborative saying that there is a "strong possibility" that AT&T will drop the entry-level price of its service plan to $59 from $69. Apple is expected to unveil the latest iPhone on June 8 during the company's World Wide Developers Conference in San Francisco.
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Apple)
AT&T declined to comment for this story, and Michael Cote did not respond to an e-mail request for an interview.
The price cut would likely help make the iPhone, which now retails for $200 with a two-year service plan with AT&T, more appealing to more mainstream customers. I've been saying for quite some time that the biggest hurdle to widescale adoption of the iPhone or any other smartphone in the mainstream market is the high price tag of the service contracts.
Consumers have shown that they are willing to pay anywhere between $100 and $200 for a sophisticated smartphone device. But the monthly service charge, which starts at $69 for the iPhone, is much harder to swallow.
It puts the real cost of the iPhone 3G over the life of the two-year contract at a whopping $1,856, which includes the price of the 8GB phone and 24 months of the most basic iPhone voice and data plan. It doesn't include the activation fee or taxes and other fees associated with the account. For subscribers who need more voice minutes or unlimited texting, the price tag is even higher.
Still, a $240 reduction in the overall cost of the phone over the life of the contract could entice some cost-conscious consumers.
... Read more
iPhone users in the United Kingdom heavily rely on their device for accessing e-mail and Web content, compared with owners of other smartphones in the country, according to a report released Thursday by market researcher ComScore.
During a three-month period concluding in January, ComScore found that 79.7 percent of U.K. iPhone users accessed news and other Web information with their iPhone. Contrast that to 48 percent for users of all smartphones.
And e-mail also has struck a chord, with 75.4 percent of iPhone users relying on the device for checking their in-boxes and sending messages, compared to 35.4 percent for users of all smartphones.
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ComScore)
While U.S. smartphone users may assume that surfing the Web is the only reason for getting a smartphone in the first place, apparently, that is not the case in the United Kingdom.
"Over the past several quarters, the U.K. smartphone market has been dominated by the N95, which lacks a QWERTY keyboard. As a result, we see smartphone users favor using their device for music and photo messaging, two activities for which these Nokia devices are particularly well-suited, more than e-mail," Alistair Hill, a ComScore analyst, said in a statement.
Currently, iPhone users represent only 2 percent of the U.K.'s mobile-phone market, ComScore noted. The number of U.K. iPhones reached 1 million in February, according to figures from Spanish telecommunications carrier Telefonica Europe.
