Apple's iPhone goes global, vaults to No. 4 mobile phone vendor worldwide
Summary: Apple's global expansion of its iPhone is paying off nicely as the company has become the No. 4 mobile phone vendor worldwide, according to IDC.
Apple's global expansion of its iPhone is paying off nicely as the company has become the No. 4 mobile phone vendor worldwide, according to IDC.
In Apple's wake sits Research in Motion.
Here's IDC's scorecard:
Simply put, Apple's rise is pretty amazing. In just a few short years, Apple has come from nowhere to become a large global player.
Other odds and ends from the IDC report:
- Vendors shipped 340.5 million units in the third quarter, up from 297.1 million a year ago.
- There are only two smartphone-only vendors in the rankings---Apple and RIM.
- Nokia has the lead, but really needs some smartphones to compete.
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Talkback
RE: Apple's iPhone goes global, vaults to No. 4 mobile phone vendor worldwide
RE: Apple's iPhone goes global, vaults to No. 4 mobile phone vendor worldwide
Look at all of the columns in the chart.
That would require fact checking. [nt]
RE: Apple's iPhone goes global, vaults to No. 4 mobile phone vendor worldwide
At 2.5% market share a year ago...
Of course, we could also see Microsoft Kin part 2 and the top 5 looking more like Nokia, Samsung, Apple, LG, RIM. An outside chance also exists that Samsung overtake Nokia, but for global sales I'd be hard pressed to call that.
What I find interesting ....
Microsoft will never show up on that list
[i]By next year, the top 5 could very well be Nokia, Samsung, Apple, RIM, Microsoft.[/i]
Unless MS pulls a Zune and actually starts selling Microsoft branded smartphone hardware, MS will never show up on that list. That is a list of hardware manufacturers, not smartphone OSs. WP7 phones will show up under Samsung and LG on that list.
RE: Apple's iPhone goes global, vaults to No. 4 mobile phone vendor worldwide
Wow! Impressive
It doesn't matter how many models the company sells
However, I will agree with you that Apple's performance in the mobile sector is extremely impressive. The iPhone 4 is a fantastic phone and Apple deserves the success it has achieved with it.
RE: Apple's iPhone goes global, vaults to No. 4 mobile phone vendor worldwide
Eat Your Heart Out Trolls
No.4 is Nice, but where are they Profit Wise?
Apple makes a nice profit off the selling price, but pulls in more revenues from sales at the AppStore, as well as royalties on iPhone/touch accessories. They are slowly adding advertising revenues that will add value to each unit sold.
Google doesn't have the direct revenues, but may well end up close to the top in terms of profits from phone sales.
RIM? They obviously have Value Added long term revenues, but can sales really hold over the long term against continually developing competition?
RE: Apple's iPhone goes global, vaults to No. 4 mobile phone vendor worldwide
That's crazy, but not quite as crazy as it sounds. Smart phones are the most profitable segment of the market, but Apple sells only high-end models, and apparently, still gets kick-backs on service contracts from AT&T, at least. Meanwhile, Samsung, LG, and Nokia, while large, do quite a bit of business in less profitable dumb and feature phones. While Nokia is technically the largest smart phone vendor, most Nokia users think they have feature phones. Their share of the high-end smart phone market is small. And no one's getting the kind of mark-ups Apple gets.
This is probably why Apple doesn't really have to care about every being the #1 smartphone vendor, unit-wise. Just like Mercedes doesn't care to be Volkswagen or Chevy. Apple has to maintain their appearance of high-endianness, or their profits will plummet.