The bean counters over at Strategy Analytics have some new wisdom to share with the world now that most everyone has posted their Q4 2010 financial results. In terms of smartphones, 94 million of them shipped in the three months between October and December of last year. That’s an astonishing 75% increase compared with the same quarter last year. Tom Kang, Director at Strategy Analytics, said: “Apple was once again the fastest growing brand among the big 3 smartphone players, as it almost doubled volumes on an annual basis, maintained a small quarterly lead over RIM, and captured 17 percent global marketshare.”
Neil Mawston, another Director at Strategy Analytics, because two is always better than one, says that 293 million smartphones shipped in 2010, and that’s practically double the 151 million sold in 2008, and a huge increase from the 179 million sold in 2009. In terms of growth as a percentage for Q4 year over year: Nokia grew 36.1%, RIM grew 36.4%, Apple grew 86.2%, note that it’s growing faster than the smartphone market, and “others”, which include Samsung, HTC, Motorola, LG, and pretty much everyone else who made an Android last year, grew 155.5%. Nokia became the first company to ship over 100 million smartphones in a single year, but Strategy Analytics says that they’ve lost a massive percentage of market share, nearly 10%, when comparing Q4 09 and Q4 10 figures.
The past 12 months have really been all about Android, and the next 12 months are sure to see it rise even further, possibly even displacing Nokia’s Symbian platform as the dominant smartphone operating system. Yet it’s also odd to see how Apple, with the one model they come out with every summer, have somehow managed to sell nearly 16 out of every 100 smartphones sold in 2010. And the most impressive statistic of all is that nearly 1 out of every 4 handsets sold last quarter was a smartphone. Any bets on when it’s going to hit 50%?
[Via: Mobile Business Briefing]