iPhone Share of Smartphone Sales Continues to Increase
Research firm Gartner today released a report detailing mobile phone sales for the second quarter of 2009. While Apple does not rank among the top five worldwide vendors for all phones, the report also highlights the smaller smartphone segment, where Apple held the third position in unit sales with 13.3% of that market. Apple's market share is up from 10.8% in the first quarter of this year and from only 2.8% in the year-ago quarter.
The significant increase in the year-over-year data is due in large part to the timing of Apple's product releases. Because the iPhone 3G was not launched until July 2008, Apple's sales number for the second quarter of that year reflected potential customers holding out for the new model and did not include the sales numbers generated at the device's launch. With the iPhone 3GS launching in June of this year, the initial sales bump, which included
one million iPhone 3G models sold in the launch weekend and continued brisk sales in the remaining week of the month, was included in Gartner's data. Gartner also notes that the early June iPhone 3G price drop to $99 contributed to increased sales for Apple.
Apple's expansion into a larger number of countries in the past year has produced a clear effect on sales volumes, as have the recent price adjustments on the 8GB 3G iPhone. Sales of 5.4 million units in the second quarter of 2009 indicated a 51 per cent growth in shipments and helped Apple maintain the No. 3 position in the smartphone market, where it has stayed since the third quarter of 2008. Apple brought its much-anticipated new device -- the iPhone 3G S -- to market at the end of the second quarter of 2009, but its full potential will only start to show in the sales figures in the second half of 2009.
Popular Stories
Apple has stopped production of FineWoven accessories, according to the Apple leaker and prototype collector known as "Kosutami." In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Kosutami explained that Apple has stopped production of FineWoven accessories due to its poor durability. The company may move to another non-leather material for its premium accessories in the future. Kosutami has revealed...
The lead developer of the multi-emulator app Provenance has told iMore that his team is working towards releasing the app on the App Store, but he did not provide a timeframe. Provenance is a frontend for many existing emulators, and it would allow iPhone and Apple TV users to emulate games released for a wide variety of classic game consoles, including the original PlayStation, GameCube, Wii,...
The upcoming iOS 17.5 update for the iPhone includes only a few new user-facing features, but hidden code changes reveal some additional possibilities. Below, we have recapped everything new in the iOS 17.5 and iPadOS 17.5 beta so far. Web Distribution Starting with the second beta of iOS 17.5, eligible developers are able to distribute their iOS apps to iPhone users located in the EU...
Apple Vision Pro, Apple's $3,500 spatial computing device, appears to be following a pattern familiar to the AR/VR headset industry – initial enthusiasm giving way to a significant dip in sustained interest and usage. Since its debut in the U.S. in February 2024, excitement for the Apple Vision Pro has noticeably cooled, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. Writing in his latest Power On...
It was a big week for retro gaming fans, as iPhone users are starting to reap the rewards of Apple's recent change to allow retro game emulators on the App Store. This week also saw a new iOS 17.5 beta that will support web-based app distribution in the EU, the debut of the first hotels to allow for direct AirPlay streaming to room TVs, a fresh rumor about the impending iPad Air update, and...