iPhone market share doubled in Q1 – Gartner
Apple (AAPL) and Research in Motion (RIMM) were the big winners in the first quarter of 2009, according to a report on the mobile phone industry issued by Gartner, Inc. on Wednesday.
Against a backdrop of weakening sales, smartphones — and in particular, touchscreen smartphones — were the exception.
According to Gartner, worldwide mobile phone sales totalled 269.1 million units in 2009 Q1, down 9.4% from 2008. But smartphone sales exceeded 36.4 million units, up 12.7% from the same period last year.
"Much of the smartphone growth during the first quarter of 2009 was driven by touchscreen products, both in midtier and high-end devices," said Roberta Cozza, principal analyst at Gartner. "'Touch for the sake of touch' was enough of a driver in the midtier space, but tighter integration with applications and services around music, mobile e-mail, and Internet browsing made the difference at the high end of the market."
Nokia (NOK) and "Others" — which apparently included Microsoft (MSFT) Windows Mobile — were the big losers in the smartphone market. RIM, however, grew its market share nearly 50% year over year, while Apple's share increased 109%.
See chart below.
Curiously, Gartner reports that Apple shipped 3.938 million iPhones in the first quarter of 2009, while Apple reported selling 3.79 million in the same period. The difference, according to an Apple spokesperson, is that Apple reports the number of iPhones it "shipped in" to its customers, while Gartner estimates "ship through," and includes the number of units it believes are sitting in inventory.
The Iphone is a great product. However, its downfall will be its relationship with the mediocre service provided by ATT. I own the 3G iphone, but see myself switching back to Verizon as more competitive smartphones hit the market.
Steve Jobs, albeit all of Apple, doesn't really care about market share. They care about making great products. Sure, they might be arrogant and exclusive, as their users can be. So, it's simple: don't buy an iPhone, or a Mac for that matter. Get a Blackberry or Palm or whatever. Personally, I've owned Macs since 1985, followed by iPods and iPhones when they became available. I'm happy with them, so I'll keep buying them until I'm not. But I can't imagine. How's that for arrogant?
This is about phones, not PC's people. Leave that stupid old arguement out of it! I have owned almost every type of cell phone and the IPhone is a great one. Easy to use(never had a Mac), looks great, and functions well. Don't see the popularity going away any time soon, so deal w/ it. Just as any tech, can always improve and hope it does for a long time.
I have the Blackberry Bold on Verizon, I also have the iPhone 3G both hooked up to my company's Exchange system.
The difference is, when I look at both devices, the Blackberry seamlessly pushed my new emails effortlessly while the iPhone 3G constantly required manual "Pulling" even when I have my mail set to sync automatically.
Apple misrepresented their "Push" email, it is clearly not "Push."
So Apple will remain a niche player? Hmmm, now let me think a moment.
Would that be the niche that sluices millions of dollars a day in cash into Apple's bank account every time someone, anywhere in the world, downloads a song, vid or app? Would that be the niche that keeps Apple's gross margins up in the 30%+ bracket, whilst dog-eat-dog netbook makers scrabble around in the dirt for 3%? Would that be the niche that confounds the doom-mongers when, time and again, Apple' customers happily pay premium dollars for premium product?
If that's a niche, I want to be in it. (Just like I'd rather be in BMW's niche rather than GM's…
Quality, reliability and cachet sells; undifferentiated crap sinks like a stone.
Disclosure. Multiple Macs for business and personal. iPods round the house. iPhones round the workforce. Shareholding: long in AAPL.
Maybe its time for:
"..Designed in California and proudly made in California.."?
We are all paying the price of outsourcing right now and the outlook doesnt look any better…
Interesting point you make about Apple market share Roy. I don't think your assumption about iPhone share follows from the Mac market share. iPods are hardly open and I don't see Apple's share of mp3 player market share suffering much. That being said, I don't believe that the iPhone will ever dominate the market like the iPod has. I do, however, believe that they will retain a sizable chunk. Unless the other companies step their game up a lot and Apple completely drops the ball, they'll always keep a reasonable share of the smartphone market.
And as a sidenote, Apple market share worldwide is now 3.36% as of Q1 2009. The 2% number is a couple years old, at least. Still a tiny number, but growing not shrinking over the past few years. Now as for whether or not they'll continue to grow, that has more to do with the worldwide economy, not any desire for more choices. Most people don't want more choices. They want the choices to be easy, the computer to look cool, work well and for it to be easy to use. And if they can get it for cheaper, that's better. That last one is the only area that Apple doesn't deliver on. People can argue about whether or not they are a good value, but Apple computers are not cheap. In full disclosure I have 2 macs and 2 pcs that I use at home.
90% non Apple market share is looking more and more like 90% non Apple market share in PCs. Apple has 2% market share worldwide in PCs, and will have 3-7% in share in Smartphones after WinMo 7 arrives, -showing that life repeats. Until Apple opens up its systems to other hardware manufacturers (giving the world public real chaise), it will be a niche player. Admittedly the trendsetter, but just a niche player. 95% of Smartphones will be non Apple by 2013, and Apple will have the nest phone. The public doesn’t want the best, just a ton of choice of manufacturers, especially running a particular mobile OS. Look for vast consolidation in the years to come, as Apple goes down to 2% market share for its wonderful, but closed system. Steve’s a GENIUS, BUT POSSESSIVE.
As Apple pushes the envelop of appPhones with its third take of the iconic iPhone since June 2007, other world class makers such as Nokia, HTC, LG, and uncounted number of new appPhone makers such as HP, Cisco, IBM, all of these makers capable of making Time and Era impacting offerings, instead of dumb Buy1 Get1 Free sales campaigns like the fallen Rim, it is foreseeable in the near future that mobile appPhones will take forefront in the re-emergence of global economy where the Apple's will thrive and the Rim's will die.
@ Roy
Apple has more than 2% market share in Computer. I think the last time I read they are either 5% or 8%. 2% is like 10 years ago. if 2% M$ wouldn't have to run those ads aiming at Apple high price computer.