Apple hits three-year low in smartphone marketshare, shipment figures reveal

Apple hits three-year low in smartphone marketshare, shipment figures reveal

Fresh reports on the state of the cellphone market during Q2 2013 have blown through the barn door, and industry analysts are flaunting some fairly impressive figures. Smartphones have outsold their less-intelligent brethren for the second quarter in a row, and Strategy Analytics says shipments hit a record-breaking 237.9 million. According to IDC, Samsung managed to ship a total of 72.4 million smartphones during Q2 -- a 43.9% boost year-over-year -- with help of the Galaxy S 4 and price cuts to the GS3. To put that in perspective, that's more than double the 31.2 million iPhones Apple managed to ship, and Strategy Analytics claims this marks a three-year low in Cook and Co.'s marketshare. While LG and ZTE each occupy third and fifth place, respectively, Lenovo pushed Huawei out of the number four slot by sending out 11.3 million handsets. If you're craving for more stats, hit the break for a trio of press releases.

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Source: IDC, ABI Research

Gartner and IDC: PC shipments dropped about 11 percent in Q2

IDC PC shipment estimates for Q2 2013, worldwide

If you were looking for a bounce-back in the PC market after a sobering first quarter... well, keep looking. Both Gartner and IDC estimate that shipments fell about 11 percent year-over-year in the second quarter. The two analyst groups blame the decline on sluggish uptake in a few regions, most notably China and Europe, as well as a market that favors tablets over low-end computers. It's easy to agree after seeing the numbers. Taiwanese PC makers like Acer and ASUS faced steep yearly declines as they switched their attention toward tablets and Ultrabooks, while even top-seated Lenovo took a small bruising.

There's a silver lining to this cloud, however. Dell, HP and Lenovo all fared much better in the US than they have in recent quarters. Gartner and IDC attribute the resurgence to the corporate world, where the end of Windows XP support in 2014 may be pushing some upgrades to PCs running at least Windows 7. It's not quite the broader recovery that vendors are hoping for, but it may have to suffice when any help from Windows 8.1 and OS X Mavericks is months away.

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Source: Gartner, IDC

Android’s Jelly Bean contingent finally surpasses Gingerbread

Android's Jelly Bean contingent finally surpasses Gingerbread

It's a new era, we tell ya. An era where Google can finally say that its latest build of Android is also the one being used by the greatest majority of Android users. For over a year, Android 4.1+ has been the most up-to-date build of Google's mobile OS, and yet, the greatest majority of those accessing the Play Store were using a build that was bordering on antediluvian. According to the official Developers Dashboard, the percentages have slid to a point where Android Jelly Bean -- which encompasses 4.1.x and 4.2.x -- now represents 37.9 percent of Play Store users. Gingerbread (v2.3.3 through 2.3.7) has fallen to second place with 34.1 percent, while Ice Cream Sandwich (4.0.3 through 4.0.4) holds down the bronze with 23.3 percent. Hit up the source link to view the full breakdown, and do us a solid -- if you know someone still using Donut, grab 'em a Christmas-in-July present.

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Via: The Next Web

Source: Android

Android’s Jelly Bean contingent finally surpasses Gingerbread

Android's Jelly Bean contingent finally surpasses Gingerbread

It's a new era, we tell ya. An era where Google can finally say that its latest build of Android is also the one being used by the greatest majority of Android users. For over a year, Android 4.1+ has been the most up-to-date build of Google's mobile OS, and yet, the greatest majority of those accessing the Play Store were using a build that was bordering on antediluvian. According to the official Developers Dashboard, the percentages have slid to a point where Android Jelly Bean -- which encompasses 4.1.x and 4.2.x -- now represents 37.9 percent of Play Store users. Gingerbread (v2.3.3 through 2.3.7) has fallen to second place with 34.1 percent, while Ice Cream Sandwich (4.0.3 through 4.0.4) holds down the bronze with 23.3 percent. Hit up the source link to view the full breakdown, and do us a solid -- if you know someone still using Donut, grab 'em a Christmas-in-July present.

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Via: The Next Web

Source: Android

Kantar: Windows Phone still growing in the US, now has 5.6 percent share

Kantar Windows Phone still growing in the US, now has 56 percent share

Now that it's collecting cash from Nokia for WP8, Microsoft might want to considering buying it flowers, as the mobile OS has picked up market share considerably over last quarter in the US -- apparently at the expense of Apple's iOS. According to numbers from Kantar (which only tracked phone, not tablet OS's), WP jumped from 4.1 percent the previous quarter to 5.6 percent in Q2 2013, a period in which Nokia released the Lumia 620 and began shipping its Lumia 820 and 920 in volume. BlackBerry held its tiny share of 0.7 percent stateside over Q1 despite the availability of the Z10, while Android saw a half-point bump to 51.7 percent -- though if Samsung and HTC's lofty sales estimates for the GS 4 and One hold, that might change considerably next time. Meanwhile, Apple fell from a 43.5 percent share last quarter to 41.4 percent, perhaps because its flagship iPhone 5 is due for a refresh -- something we might see soon.

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Source: kantar

Ubuntu team closes its original ‘bug:’ Microsoft’s majority of PC market share

Ubuntu logo

When Ubuntu Linux was still in early development back in August 2004, Canonical founder Mark Shuttleworth filed a tongue-in-cheek first bug: that Microsoft had a majority of PC market share. Little did he realize that he'd have an excuse to cross that bug off the list in 2013. Since computing now includes phones and tablets, he argues, that leaves the traditional PC (and therefore Windows) in the minority versus Android, iOS and other platforms. Whether or not you agree with that market interpretation, Shuttleworth is ready to move on -- he feels it's better to polish Canonical's own cloud, desktop and mobile efforts than to target someone else. It's undoubtedly easy for Shuttleworth to make peace when the battle is supposed to be over, but we can't object to such a healthy attitude.

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Via: NPR

Source: Ubuntu (1), (2)

Tim Cook on Android market share: winning has never been about having the most (update: video)

Tim Cook on Android market share winning has never been about having the most update video

Apple's head honcho Tim Cook is chatting up Android's growth explosion, and it turns out he's not flustered. "Do I look at that? Of course, I don't have my head stuck in the sand," said Cook." But for us, winning has never been about having the most." Instead, he stands by the old Apple line of quality versus quantity. "Arguably, we make the best PC, but we don't make the most," he added. "We made the best music player, and we wound up making the most -- but we didn't initially."

Rather than focus on install base, Cupertino's chief turned to usage stats to illustrate their supremacy, noting that their slates are the most popular for browsing the web. "You can look at tablet web market share in North America," Cook said. "Almost every study I see has the iPad in the 80s (percentage)." Before even broaching the subject of Google's mobile OS, Cook cited NetApp figures that show 59 percent of worldwide web traffic from smartphones and tablets comes from iOS devices. We're sure the folks in Mountain View are content with quantity, though we'd hazard a guess they enjoy quality as well.

Update: We've slotted in a video clip of Tim Cook responding to the ballooning Android market share after the break.

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Strategy Analytics: Samsung topped China smartphone share in Q1

Strategy Analytics Samsung tops China smartphone share in Q1

Many analysts believe that Samsung led the Chinese smartphone market throughout much of 2012, and there are already signs of a repeat coming in 2013. Strategy Analytics now estimates that the Galaxy maker sold 12.5 million smartphones in the country during the first quarter of this year, or enough to stay in front at 18.5 percent market share. Others didn't come close, although there was a fierce battle for the runner up spot. Huawei (8.1 million) barely pushed past Lenovo (7.9 million) to become number two in China, while Coolpad (7.1 million), ZTE (6.4 million) and Apple (6.1 million) were locked in their own fight for fourth place. While it's true that market share isn't the only yardstick for smartphone success, having the most popular devices in the world's most populous country undoubtedly helps with bragging rights.

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Via: The Next Web

Source: The Korea Herald

Gartner: Android and Samsung dominate the phone market in Q1

Gartner Android and Samsung dominate the phone market in Q1

If you've been following the trends, Gartner's mobile phone market figures for the first quarter of 2013 won't surprise. The research firm estimates that Android was on 74.4 percent of all smartphones sold in the period, with Samsung the key beneficiary of such dominance. While the Korean behemoth doesn't release solid sales figures, Gartner believes its market-flooding strategy has paid off, topping the league with 30.8 percent market share -- Apple has a firm grip on second place, with 18.2 percent, which is well ahead of LG, which has 4.8 percent. Samsung is also king of the mobile phone space, owning 23.6 percent of the market, ahead of Nokia, which has fallen to 14.8 percent share. Gartner's research also found that feature phone sales are slowing, so we guess that it's only a matter of time before the humble candybar goes the way of the netbook.

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Via: TechCrunch

Source: Gartner

Canalys: Android nabbed 75 percent of smartphone shipments in Q1

Canalys is back with its latest worldwide estimates of mobile device shipments, and while the analyst group has a divisive way of combining figures, there's plenty of insight to discover in its breakdown of the smartphone and tablet realms. First off, Canalys reports that Android accounted for 75.6 percent of all smartphone shipments during Q1, which is an increase from the 69.2 percent it reported for the previous quarter. As a whole, Canalys estimates that 216.3 million smartphones were shipped during Q1, which is roughly steady when compared to the three months prior. It should come as no surprise, but Samsung is said to lead the category with nearly a third of all smartphone shipments, while Apple accounted for roughly 17 percent of the pie. Meanwhile, Huawei, LG and ZTE are next in line, each with less than 5 percent of the market.

Given the prevalence of the iPad, you could just as easily guess that Apple continues to dominate the tablet category and still be right. Here, Canalys estimates that Apple holds a 46.4 percent market share, but qualifies that win, as that the company is losing ground to its Android-based rivals. On the upside, Canalys reckons that the tablet market has more than doubled from the previous year, which means there's plenty of pie to go around.

[Image credit: Jon Fingas, Flickr]

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Source: Canalys