Figures from market research firm IDC indicate that smartphones have weathered the economic storm.
IDC said that sales of converged mobile devices – that’s smartphones to you and me – reached a record for shipments during the third quarter of 2003, with 43.3 million units shipped, up 4.2 percent from the 41.5 million units shipped in the same calendar quarter last year.
“With the release of Android based handsets from several different OEMs, most recently Motorola, but also Samsung, LG and Sony Ericsson, the buzz surrounding Android OS is reaching critical mass,” said William Stofega research manager in the mobile devices technology team.
“The release of new Android devices has picked up dramatically over the past several months and the release of version 2.0 demonstrates that Android is rapidly evolving and responsive to suggestions from OEMs and developers,” he continued.
Nokia, RIM and Apple all did well. Apple shipped its highest volume in a single quarter. It is now shipping in many global markets.
Here are IDC’s figures for the major vendors – units are in millions.
| Vendor | Q309 ships |
Q309 share |
Q308 ships |
Q308 share |
YoY growth |
| Nokia | 16.4 | 37.9% | 15.4 | 37.1% | 6.6% |
| RIM | 8.2 | 19.0% | 6 | 14.6% | 35.7% |
| Apple | 7.4 | 17.1% | 6.9 | 16.6% | 7.1% |
| HTC | 2.4 | 5.6% | 2.1 | 5.1% | 14.7% |
| Samsung | 1.5 | 3.5% | 1.5 | 3.7% | 0.0% |
| Others | 7.3 | 16.8% | 9.5 | 22.9% | -23.5% |
| Total | 43.3 | 100% | 41.5 | 100% | 4.2% |
