iPhone sales soar but Android handsets win

Tuesday

An outbreak of iPhone fever made Apple the hottest smartphone maker worldwide at the end of 2011 but handsets powered by Google’s Android software were shaping up as true winners in the market.

Worldwide shipments of smartphones soared 54.7 per cent in the final three months of 2011 from the same period a year earlier, with California-based Apple making the most popular models, according to an IDC report released on Monday.

Smartphone makers shipped 157.8 million units in the fourth quarter of 2011, compared to 102 million in the same period the prior year, IDC reported.

A total of 491.4 million smartphones were shipped during the year, up a “strong 61.3 per cent” from the 304.7 million units in 2010, according to IDC.

Apple had a 23.5 per cent share of the global smartphone market, followed by Samsung and Nokia with 22.8 per cent and 12.4 per cent respectively.

Hero devices

“So-called ‘hero’ devices, such as Samsung’s Galaxy Nexus and Apple’s iPhone 4S, garner the bulk of the attention heaped on the device type,” said Mr Kevin Restivo, senior research analyst with IDC’s Worldwide Mobile Phone Tracker.

“But a growing number of sub-$250 device offerings, based on the Android operating system, have allowed Google’s hardware partners to grow smartphone volumes.

While Apple tightly controls iPhone hardware and software, Google makes the Android mobile device operating system available free to smartphone manufacturers who have been building it into ranks of handsets.

(AFP)