Report: Smartphones now more popular than PCs

by Steven Mostyn - Feb 6 2012, 14:00

Smartphone devices might not (yet) be as powerful as desktop computers, but, when it comes to market popularity, there aren’t that many people willing to strap a bulky PC system to their hip before leaving the house.

More pointedly, a new report from market research specialist Canalys suggests that more smartphone handsets were shipped during 2011 than regular client PC systems such as notebooks, desktops and netbooks.

According to Canalys, vendors have shipped out a whopping 488 million smartphones globally over the last 12 months, which eclipses the 415 million client PC units shipped to retail outlets.

Although a lead 73 million units equates to a healthy dominance where smartphone popularity is concerned, its impact is magnified somewhat considering that the report’s PC figure also includes shipped units of tablet computers.

In terms of percentage-based improvement year-on-year, the report offers that smartphone shipments increased by an impressive 62.7 percent in 2011.

Described as “a significant milestone” by Canalys analyst Chris Jones, it’s now clear that smartphones have grown from being “a niche product” to become “a truly mass-market proposition”.

Breaking the shipment figure of 488 million down by manufacturer and product, various vendor devices powered by Google Android accounted for 238 million (48.8 percent), while Apple’s iPhone continued its single-device dominance thanks to shifting some 93 million units (19.1 percent).

Symbian-powered handsets accounted for 80.1 million units shipped, following by the BlackBerry OS with 51.4 million units, Bada with 13.2 million, Windows Phone with 6.8 million, and other platforms with a combined 5.4 million.

Around the Web

comments powered by Disqus