Smartphone sales up 98% worldwide, one in four run Android

[Emil]

Over 80.5 million of the 417 million handsets sold in Q3 2010 were smartphones, meaning year-over-year smartphone sales were up 98 percent worldwide, according to Gartner. The rapid growth of the global mobile market means that hardware and software companies can ship tens of millions units and still lose share in a given quarter.

Apple is now one of the top five bestselling manufacturers, passing Research in Motion to grab fourth place. Nokia, Samsung, and LG still maintain their rankings as the top three cell phone makers. That being said, the iPhone was not the most popular smartphone: phones running Symbian (36.6 percent of Q3 2010), which comes loaded on many Nokia devices, are the most common. They are now closely followed by phones running Google's Android (25.5 percent). Apple's iOS is in third (16.7 percent), RIM's BlackBerry is in fourth (14.8 percent), and Microsoft's Windows Mobile (2.8 percent) is in fifth.

"Smartphone OS providers have entered a period of accelerated platform evolution, stimulated by more regular product releases, new platform entrants and new device types," Gartner analyst Roberta Cozza said in a statement. "Any platform that fails to innovate quickly — either through a vibrant multi-player ecosystem or clear vision of a single controlling entity — will lose developers, manufacturers, potential partners and ultimately users."

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https://www.techspot.com/news/41078-smartphone-sales-up-98-worldwide-one-in-four-run-android.html

 

[taea00]

Glad to see there's so much competition for smartphone OSes. Let's just hope they all push each other to create faster, better Oses and not just rush crap out the door to sell another 1 million units.

 

[KG363]

I am not at all familiar with symbian. Then again, nokias aren't too popular here

 

[Puiu]

Huge boom in market share for android at the expense of symbian. in a year from now symbian will most likely drop somewhere around 10%. After that only a miracle will be able to save it.

 

[klepto12]

Way to go android that a boy i personally have used almost every os for phones and love android and windows mobile the best i hate to see symbian falling back but maybe it will make them kick in gear and bring out something note worthy.

 

[zogo]

The fall of the symbian is near, the time of the Android has come
People without Android based smartphones are rare these days, that's for sure!

 

[aj_the_kidd]

puiu said:
Huge boom in market share for android at the expense of symbian. in a year from now symbian will most likely drop somewhere around 10%. After that only a miracle will be able to save it.

I can see Symbian market share dropping by 10%, not dropping to 10%, that's a bit extreme.

 

[uttaradhaka]

One in four. Wow.

Google gets into the smartphone market and three years they're at the top (and by quite a margin)..

Thats google for you.. But, the thing I like the most is that Apple are being beaten at this. Those overcharging, cocky apple taxers!!

 

[ruzveh]

There is no surprise here as expected Android outdoing the most. WP7 still lacks many features. Symbian wil take a lot of time holding its market share. There is very limited cellphone which offers keypad interface(non QWERTY)

 

[fritz123]

nokias is popular here. so no wonder that symbian will have the most sales. most people cant afford iphones nor androids her. i think nokia phones are a lot more cheap than it's competitors so its better received by the public. i dont really know. but thats just my opinion.

apple is really cashing out on their gadgets. the prices are way apart.

 

[Superpeter]

Nokia used to be the rage, Whenever i watch 'Attack of the Show' on G4 tv and see all the old Nokia's (the modding ones with changeable faceplates and antenna's) hanging from the ceiling, I get nostalgic.lol I had a cell phone accessory business from Nokia's shenanigans and it was a lot of fun and very lucrative for me. I'd like for them to become A prevailing U.S. smartphone in the future again. I lived though this whole phone growth...from the BEEPER!!! Typing beeper codes was the s*!t!! And I used to talk about where the future of phones/mobile communication would be and I'm glad to see where it has grown to. Please, MORE CELLPHONE COMPETITION!!! I WANT A SMALLER VERSION OF MY HOME COMPUTER IN MY POCKET!! lol For a good price....

 

[aj_the_kidd]

limpangel said:

aj_the_kidd said:

puiu said:
Huge boom in market share for android at the expense of symbian. in a year from now symbian will most likely drop somewhere around 10%. After that only a miracle will be able to save it.

I can see Symbian market share dropping by 10%, not dropping to 10%, that's a bit extreme.

Symbian^3 is the last version Nokia supports. Nokia closed down the development of Symbian, open sourced the code and is now focusing on MeeGo together with Intel. Gizmodo didn't even make a review of the flagship Nokia N8 Symbian^3 phone because they considered it irrelevant. So I think puiu's statement pretty much hits the spot. With the Meego platform coming in 2011 I would not be surprised if the Symbian smartphone market share would drop bellow 10% in just about a year or so.

Sorry think there has been some miss communication here, i was saying that Symbians, overall, market share would not drop below 10%, if your talking specifically about its smartphone market share, then yeah i can see it dropping below 10%, is it even near that number now?

 

[surbey]

I knew it was only a matter of time and Android would overtake iOS. I never realized it would be so fast

 

[xcelofjkl]

I got myself a smartphone (iphone 3gs) but now I really feel I got the worse end of the stick by not getting an Android/WP7. Money back plzzz

 

[jazboy]

credit should go to Apple and Google for making cell phone / Cell phone OS market hot.