Research firm IDC today released its estimates on worldwide mobile phone sales for the third quarter of 2013, once again showing Apple's iPhone growth trailing that of the overall smartphone market. Apple's 33.8 million iPhone shipments were up 25.7% year-over-year, compared to 38.8% growth for the entire market. Market leader Samsung grew at slightly higher than the industry average, and Apple with its 13.1% share was able to hold onto the second-place ranking ahead of Huawei, Lenovo, and LG, all of which showed strong growth but remained at under 5% market share.
Worldwide Smartphone Shipments in 3Q13 in Millions of Units (Source: IDC)
Apple's total volumes speak to the early success of the iPhones 5S and 5C, and the softening demand of older devices prior to the new models launching. The iPhone 5S lived up to the hype of the gold case and the fingerprint sensor, and the iPhone 5C with an array of colors. At the same time, limited usability on the fingerprint sensor and higher-than-expected pricing on the iPhone 5C drew mixed reactions. Still, this did not prevent Apple from enjoying a record 9 million units shipped in their debut.
As in previous quarters, Apple's performance in the overall mobile market benefited from the decline of the featurephone, with the company's 25.7% year-over-year growth easily topping the market's overall 5.7% growth and allowing Apple to remain firmly in third place behind Samsung and Nokia. According to IDC, smartphones accounted for 55% of total mobile phone shipments during the quarter, up from 42% in the third quarter of 2012.
Worldwide Mobile Phone Shipments in 3Q13 in Millions of Units (Source: IDC)
Apple released its financial results for the third calendar quarter (fourth fiscal quarter) yesterday, revealing that the iPhone continues to account for majority of the company's revenue at 52 percent.
Tuesday February 10, 2026 4:27 pm PST by Juli Clover
Apple is planning to launch new MacBook Pro models as soon as early March, but if you can, this is one generation you should skip because there's something much better in the works.
We're waiting on 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models with M5 Pro and M5 Max chips, with few changes other than the processor upgrade. There won't be any tweaks to the design or the display, but later this...
Wednesday February 11, 2026 10:07 am PST by Juli Clover
Apple today released iOS 26.3 and iPadOS 26.3, the latest updates to the iOS 26 and iPadOS 26 operating systems that came out in September. The new software comes almost two months after Apple released iOS 26.2 and iPadOS 26.2.
The new software can be downloaded on eligible iPhones and iPads over-the-air by going to Settings > General > Software Update.
According to Apple's release notes, ...
Tuesday February 10, 2026 6:33 am PST by Joe Rossignol
It has been a slow start to 2026 for Apple product launches, with only a new AirTag and a special Apple Watch band released so far. We are still waiting for MacBook Pro models with M5 Pro and M5 Max chips, the iPhone 17e, a lower-cost MacBook with an iPhone chip, long-rumored updates to the Apple TV and HomePod mini, and much more.
Apple is expected to release/update the following products...
Tuesday February 10, 2026 1:51 pm PST by Joe Rossignol
Apple plans to announce the iPhone 17e on Thursday, February 19, according to Macwelt, the German equivalent of Macworld.
The report said the iPhone 17e will be announced in a press release on the Apple Newsroom website, so do not expect an event for this device specifically.
The iPhone 17e will be a spec-bumped successor to the iPhone 16e. Rumors claim the device will have four key...
Apple acquired Canadian graph database company Kuzu last year, it has emerged.
The acquisition, spotted by AppleInsider, was completed in October 2025 for an undisclosed sum. The company's website was subsequently taken down and its Github repository was archived, as is commonplace for Apple acquisitions.
Kuzu was "an embedded graph database built for query speed, scalability, and easy of ...
Spot on. Who the hell wants to spends a lot, sell a lot and make a thin profit. :D
Look at those smartphone numbers again - Samsung are outselling Apple almost 3-to-1.
That means Samsung can afford to have 1/3 of the margin Apple has and make the same massive profits.
Let's ignore business for a moment; wouldn't humanity benefit immensely from more people having access to better technology?
That was Apple's original vision. Not to make massive profits, but to make great products that change the world and to get those products in to the hands of as many people as possible.
Today, the company executing that vision is Samsung. Apple seems to be fixated on profit, despite being extremely financially secure already.
Spot on. Who the hell wants to spends a lot, sell a lot and make a thin profit. :D
Customers do. Customers want high end specs smartphone for low price (thin profit for manufacturer).
For example, this high end specs smartphone is selling for $327 unlocked/off-contract in China.
Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 quad-core 2.3GHz CPU Sharp/LG 5″ 1080P IPS display with ultra-sensitive touch 2GB LPDDR3 RAM 16GB eMMC4.5 flash memory SONY 13 MP Exmor RS CMOS back camera 2MP BSI front camera NFC & 2.4/5G WiFi support 3050 mAh battery
And it's outselling the Iphone in China. It's easy to compete when it's half the price of the iPhone while the specs are comparable (if not better).
Aren't profits what matter most? Apple is targeting the middle to high end which is growing. Android can have the bottom end which is also growing but is less profitable.
NO
My passion has been to build an enduring company where people were motivated to make great products. The products, not the profits, were the motivation. Sculley flipped these priorities to where the goal was to make money. It's a subtle difference, but it ends up meaning everything.
What ruined Apple was not growth They got very greedy Instead of following the original trajectory of the original vision, which was to make the thing an appliance and get this out there to as many people as possible they went for profits. They made outlandish profits for about four years. What this cost them was their future. What they should have been doing is making rational profits and going for market share.
Not saying Samsung isn't selling smart phones by the boatload. Just that it's hard to know how far ahead they are when Apple gives us "sales" and Samsung gives us "shipments."
Apple gives shipments also.
And really, after 4 years still using the same old boring and meaningless "shipped vs sold" argument.
What's the point of getting the device to the hands of people if the device itself sucks? The way to get 3x the sales of iPhones, android phone manufacturers are releasing crappy phones that are loaded with bloatware and are hard to use.
If they are all that crappy and suck, how come they year after year outsell Apple? How can they have a better growth than Apple? Wouldn't people see through them selling useless phones year after year. Wouldn't they buy an iPhone the next time in that case? Have you actually used a modern Android phone (with objective eyes)? I believe it's amazing how much bang you get for your bucks when it comes to some Android phones compared to the 5C for example.
I certainly hope that the guys at Apple don't have the same opinion, but instead realize that there are a lot of really good Android phones out there. They won't just go away by themselves due to selling cheap crap that people will stop buying. They are a real threat.
I'm not saying Apple is doomed, but it's old and incorrect to brush off the Android phones as cheap crap.
