f you are one of the few who have not thought about replacing your PC or Mac with one of those slick little handheld devices, you are probably in the minority. The world has changed ( past tense ) and mobile now rules. Read on to find out the facts here in this quick article.
A quick jump back two to three years ago and hardly anyone was talking about smartphones. What a change! Where do you go nowadays and not hear about them? From the HTC Evo to the iPhone 4 to the Nokia N900, 2009 and 2010 found people waiting in line overnight to buy a smartphone. Taking a note from IDC, a market intelligience firm, we find that now for the first time, people bought more smartphones than PCs.
The last quarter of 2010 was a big event in the history of the smartphone. 2010 was not a doubling of sales, but not far from it. The sales of smartphones escalated 87.2 percent over the last quarter of 2009.
The actual total of smartphones sold were 302.6 million in 2010 compared to 173.5 million for 2009. The sales of PCs were up, but only by 5.5 percent. The total year sales for PCs were superior over the smartphone, but the fourth quarter was a telling three month. The number of smartphones sold globally for this last quarter was 100.9 million units. In the same timeframe, PCs sold 92.1 million units globally.
What companies were doing all that selling? One of the first and biggest was Nokia. Their N8, C6 and C7 models were new, but did very well in the market. One of the reasons that Nokia has remained so successful is that they sell to a larger market. Nokia devices are marketed with success in India and China, two of the largest countries by population in the world. The N8 was the successor to the popular N900, which was marketed more as a computer than a smartphone.
The Cupertino company, Apple has increased their market share with their quality products. They had growth in the Asia Pacific and in Japan.
Businesses took the Apple way of thinking more seriously in 2010 and are expecting an even better product in 2011, with maybe even a dip into the ewallet arena. Look for them to grow by leaps and bounds now that they sell their smartphone on the Verizon network.
The Canadian company called Research In Motion is the maker of the Blackberry line of smartphones. They had a corker of a quarter in the last months of 2010. Their growth was also stimulated by countries outside of the North American region. Their popular models were the Torch and Curve 3G.
Samsung actually had the largest growth of all those who sell smartphones. In the year over year growth, Samsung takes the trophy. Their Galaxy S Series of smartphones were sold across no less than five major cell carriers in the United States alone. They have even more plans for growth in the year 2011.
HTC brings up the rear with their brand of smartphones. The Evo 4G was a classic success. Look for them to continue in popularity in 2011. Tell your PC good bye and start down the path that millions of others have taken. Buy a smartphone.
