July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Global phone shipments hit 1.6 billion units in 2012, according to a new report from Strategy Analytics, with Samsung shipping a massive 396.5 million phones last year.

“Fuelled by robust demand for its popular Galaxy models, Samsung was the star performer, shipping a record 396.5 million mobile phones worldwide and capturing 25 percent market share to solidify its first-place lead,” Neil Shah, a senior analyst at Strategy Analytics, said in a statement.

While 1.6 billion units is a huge number, it’s only a modest two percent growth, as demand slowed in mature markets like Europe and North America, and mobile operators made it more difficult for consumers to upgrade.

Key Samsung competitor Apple shipped 135.8 million phones worldwide last year, which translates to 46 percent annual growth. That’s a record high number for Apple, and Samsung’s 396.5 million is a record for that company as well.

Meanwhile, Nokia retained a 21.3 percent global market share, proving that while it’s down, it’s not yet out. The Finnish company shipped 335.6 million phones in 2012, down from 417.1 million in 2011.

“Nokia’s dual-SIM feature phones, Asha touchphones, and Lumia handsets have been performing well, but this was not enough to offset a slump in demand for the company’s aging Symbian smartphone platform last year,” said Neil Mawston, Strategy Analytics’ executive director.

The top four mobile phone vendors by market share are now:

1. Samsung: 396.5 million units
2. Nokia: 335.6 million units
3. Apple: 135.8 million units
4. ZTE: 71.7 million units

photo credit: juicyrai via photopin cc

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

A report surfaced Tuesday that suggests we will soon pass the one billion smartphone mark on Ye Olde Planet Earth.

In other breathlessly breaking news, Facebook will top two billion users, probably three years from now. Google’s website index will reach a trillion webpages, about two decades from now. And the sun will likely go nova, if we’re still here in a few billion years.

Well, OK, it is kind of a big deal.

One billion smartphones means one in seven people on the globe have a mobile device that can access the Internet, use apps, communicate with others, and generally act as a small, mobile computer. That’s cool. That’s big. And, yes, it is a massive milestone.

But — without quibbling about what, exactly qualifies as a smartphone — it hasn’t precisely happened just yet. As the story says:

“Research firm Strategy Analytics has boldly stated that the smartphone market has burgeoned enough in the past two years to reach the 1 billion milestone mark during the current third quarter.”

And:

“In the current quarter, the research firm believes that figure could rise to 1 billion.”

“Boldly stated” is bang-on. Note the creative use of time: Has stated (past), has burgeoned (past), past two years (past), to reach (present), (in the current quarter (present), during the current third quarter (mostly future), and could rise (future).

In other words, this is a pre-announcement. Hold on to your hats. Stay seated. It is going to happen, and it is a big deal. But not quite yet. According to the facts in the story, the most recent historical number is 959 million, which the market reached last quarter after 16 years of smartphones sold.

That’s already pretty momentous … and suspiciously close in time, if not space, to Facebook’s big billion-user announcement.

The next billion smartphone sales, the firm estimates, will only take three years.

photo credit: reflexer via photopin cc