Research firm Gartner today released its results of worldwide mobile phone sales for the third quarter of 2011, once again revealing how delayed purchases ahead of the iPhone 4S resulted in a dip in unit sales and market share for Apple. According to the report, Apple's share of the total mobile phone market came in at 3.9% for the quarter, down from 4.6% in the previous quarter. The performance was strong enough, however, to maintain fourth place in the rankings behind Nokia, Samsung, and LG.
Apple shipped 17 million iPhones, an annual increase of 21 percent, but down nearly 3 million units from the second quarter of 2011 because of Apple's new device announcement in October. Gartner believes Apple will bounce back in the fourth quarter because of its strongest ever preorders for the iPhone 4S in the first weekend after its announcement. Markets such as Brazil, Mexico, Russia and China are becoming more important to Apple, representing 16 percent of overall sales and showing that the iPhone has a place in emerging markets, especially now that the 3GS and 4 have received price cuts.
Looking at the narrower smartphone market, which represented 26% of mobile phone sales during the quarter, iOS slipped from an 18.2% share in the second quarter to 15.0% in the third quarter, trailing market leader Android and Nokia's soon-to-be-defunct Symbian platforms. Notably, Android leapt to grab 52.5% of the smartphone market during the quarter, more than doubling year-over-year and up significantly from 43.4% just last quarter.
But even as Android surges to take more than half of the worldwide smartphone market by units, Apple continues to increase its share of mobile phone industry profits, with several studies showing that Apple currently takes in more than half of the industry's profits.
In another stark example of Apple's rise to dominance in profit share, Fortune yesterday published several charts from a new report from analysts at Oppenheimer & Co. The graphs show that while Apple's share of smartphone unit sales has somewhat stagnated over the past couple of years, its share of smartphone profits has soared to an estimated 65% during 2011. That trend is predicted to continue in 2012, with Apple pushing toward 70% profit share.
Monday November 10, 2025 1:08 pm PST by Juli Clover
Today marks the fifth anniversary of the Apple silicon chip that replaced Intel chips in Apple's Mac lineup. The first Apple silicon chip, the M1, was unveiled on November 10, 2020. The M1 debuted in the MacBook Air, Mac mini, and 13-inch MacBook Pro.
The M1 chip was impressive when it launched, featuring the "world's fastest CPU core" and industry-leading performance per watt, and it's only ...
Tuesday November 11, 2025 9:48 am PST by Joe Rossignol
Apple released the first iOS 26.2 beta last week. The upcoming update includes a handful of new features and changes on the iPhone, including a new Liquid Glass slider for the Lock Screen's clock, offline lyrics in Apple Music, and more.
In a recent press release, Apple confirmed that iOS 26.2 will be released to all users in December, but it did not provide a specific release date....
Monday November 10, 2025 1:55 am PST by Tim Hardwick
Apple will conceal the front-facing camera under the screen of its 2027 iPhone, a Chinese leaker said today, corroborating reports that Apple's 20th anniversary iPhone will have no visible cutouts in the display.
Weibo-based account Digital Chat Station said Apple's development of under-screen camera technology was progressing as planned for adoption in 2027, one year after it will...
Tuesday November 11, 2025 1:23 am PST by Tim Hardwick
Apple has teamed up with Japanese fashion house ISSEY MIYAKE to launch iPhone Pocket, a 3D-knitted limited edition accessory designed to carry an iPhone, AirPods, and other everyday items.
The accessory is like a stretchy pocket, not unlike an iPod Sock, but elongated to form a strap made of a ribbed, elastic textile that fully encloses an iPhone yet allows you to glimpse the display...
Monday November 10, 2025 11:41 am PST by Juli Clover
The thin, light iPhone Air sold so poorly that Apple has decided to delay the launch of the next-generation iPhone Air that was scheduled to come out alongside the iPhone 18 Pro, reports The Information.
Apple initially planned to release a new iPhone Air in fall 2026, but now that's not going to happen.
Since the iPhone Air launched in September, there have been reports of poor sales...
Apple is expected to announce a new HomePod mini imminently, headlining with new chips. Here are all of the new features we're expecting.
The second-generation HomePod mini is highly likely to contain a more up-to-date chip for more advanced computational audio and improved responsiveness. The current HomePod mini is equipped with the Apple Watch Series 5's S5 chip from 2019. Apple is likely ...
Wednesday November 12, 2025 9:15 am PST by Joe Rossignol
Apple today announced that iPhone users can now create a Digital ID in the Apple Wallet app based on information from their U.S. passport.
To create and present a Digital ID based on a U.S. passport, you need:
An iPhone 11 or later running iOS 26.1 or later, or an Apple Watch Series 6 or later running watchOS 26.1 or later
Face ID or Touch ID and Bluetooth turned on
An Apple Account ...
Cellular carriers have always offered big savings on the newest iPhone models during the holidays, and Black Friday 2025 sales have kicked off at AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, and more. Right now we're tracking notable offers on the iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Pro, iPhone 17 Pro Max, and iPhone Air. For even more savings, keep an eye on older models during the holiday shopping season.
Note: MacRumors is...
We're officially in the month of Black Friday, which will take place on Friday, November 28 in 2025. As always, this will be the best time of the year to shop for great deals, including popular Apple products like AirPods, iPad, Apple Watch, and more. In this article, the majority of the discounts will be found on Amazon.
Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with some of these vendors. When ...
Wednesday November 12, 2025 11:42 am PST by Joe Rossignol
While it was rumored that Apple planned to release new versions of the HomePod mini, Apple TV, and AirTag this year, it is no longer clear if that will still happen.
Back in January, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said Apple planned to release new HomePod mini and Apple TV models "toward the end of the year," while he at one point expected a new AirTag to launch "around the middle of 2025." Yet,...
Those marketshare reports always fail to include the iPod and the iPad, which are all part of the iOS ecosystem. If they actually included ALL iOS devices in those studies, the TRUTH would be revealed: that Apple completely dominates & decimates their competition.
The iPod and the iPad are not a phone. Only the iPhone is. Can you make calls with a iPod or iPad via a celluar network? Thought so.
Android is an excellent platform? We must have very different definitions of the word "Excellent".
Here we go again. Yes, some people prefer Android and some iOS en some others WP7. It's called personal prefference. Bassicly it is letting them pick the tool that they want to use to acomplish the same thing.
Both iOS,Android and WP7 are very good, and they both have their positive and negative sides. Who are you to judge someone just because they use a different platform...
Those marketshare reports always fail to include the iPod and the iPad, which are all part of the iOS ecosystem. If they actually included ALL iOS devices in those studies, the TRUTH would be revealed: that Apple completely dominates & decimates their competition.
Why include them? This is only about phones and based on that, Android marketshare can't be touched.
Those marketshare reports always fail to include the iPod and the iPad, which are all part of the iOS ecosystem. If they actually included ALL iOS devices in those studies, the TRUTH would be revealed: that Apple completely dominates & decimates their competition.
Yap, because the iPod touch is a very good smartphone, isn't?
Android is an excellent platform? We must have very different definitions of the word "Excellent".
Well, you also have a definition for smartphone or phone that includes iPod Touch and ipad, so yes, perhaps your definition of excellent may be also wrong
You do realize that the internal components of an Apple computer is the same as you'd find in any other computer, right? The hard disc, RAM, graphic cards etc are all bulk standard ( In fact, graphic cards found in Apple PCs are often inferior to their Windows PC counter parts )
The internal components of Megan Fox are the same as those of any other woman.
This saddest part of all this is I remember a time, not too long ago, when you were considered cool having iPhones, and MacBook Pros, etc......now everyone has one.....
you wanna be the only cool kid with the shiny toy so everybody likes you?
