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Apple Tops Nokia to Become World's Top Smartphone Vendor
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Amazing rise for Apple to dominance.
Scary fall for Nokia.
Had you told me that Nokia were going to decline like they have a few years ago I would have thought you were mad. Elop had better get things moving for them.
Amazing rise for Apple to dominance.
Scary fall for Nokia.
Had you told me that Nokia were going to decline like they have a few years ago I would have thought you were mad. Elop had better get things moving for them.
Not surprising.
Apple changed the face of mobile in 2007. With what we're seeing now, however, they actually changed tech itself as we know it - new distribution models, breathing new life into software-as-commodity, etc. This isn't just about mobile. The iPad is bringing us into a new phase of computing. The entire game has changed thanks to Apple.
Reason: different thinking. The user is no longer regarded as an extension of the device. The device is becoming an extension of the user. A few players are still having a difficult time with this concept.
Apple changed the face of mobile in 2007. With what we're seeing now, however, they actually changed tech itself as we know it - new distribution models, breathing new life into software-as-commodity, etc. This isn't just about mobile. The iPad is bringing us into a new phase of computing. The entire game has changed thanks to Apple.
Reason: different thinking. The user is no longer regarded as an extension of the device. The device is becoming an extension of the user. A few players are still having a difficult time with this concept.
Looks like someones gonna have to change their Google meta description!!
I'm not sure you're right... the article is talking about smartphones only, I wouldn't be surprised if nokia is still the biggest player in the overall mobile phone Market, I.e. Smartphones and dumbphones.
Lots of people who are not in the Market for smartphones still go to nokia by default it seems.
And you know what ? In the battle for eco-systems, Apple can sell as many devices as they like, other eco-systems are bigger and growing faster.
Currently iOS is the biggest, most robust ecosystem (in part because it's actually viable, especially for tablets.) And it's still growing.
The rapid growth of others, however, is no sign of quality. Your ecosystem is worthless when it includes devices that are the equivalent of chinese motorcycles. Universally-licensing your OS makes you bigger, but far from better.
Yes, it's a battle of ecosystems and Google is following the Microsoft approach, for good and for ill. The good is they can flood the worldwide market with devices running their software. The bad is the experience will vary widely for the user. The rumored Amazon tablet, for example, is supposed to be running Android. So it will get counted as an Android device. But the rumor is that Amazon will completely change the UI to make it Amazon-specific. They are allowed to do that, but that means it will be an Android device that won't act like other Android devices. But hey, it'll get counted in the contest to beat Apple.
Same thing with Asian knockoff phones that grab Android for free and put it on cheap phones. Nice experience the users will have with Android there, huh?
So yes, when the entire world floods the market with hundreds of models, you absolutely can outsell two models from one company. The shock of it would be if it didn't happen that way. But it's hardly meaningful if you get sales by flooding the system. Far more meaningful is when people ask for you by name and pay for the privilege. That's what Apple is doing. And consider this: In the first quarter of the iPhone's existence in 2007, Apple sold 1 million units. Four years later Apple sells twenty times that number in one quarter. That's phenomenal growth! That tells you that the phone market is so vast that both Android and Apple can grow, grow, grow without limit for a very long time.
Same thing with Asian knockoff phones that grab Android for free and put it on cheap phones. Nice experience the users will have with Android there, huh?
So yes, when the entire world floods the market with hundreds of models, you absolutely can outsell two models from one company. The shock of it would be if it didn't happen that way. But it's hardly meaningful if you get sales by flooding the system. Far more meaningful is when people ask for you by name and pay for the privilege. That's what Apple is doing. And consider this: In the first quarter of the iPhone's existence in 2007, Apple sold 1 million units. Four years later Apple sells twenty times that number in one quarter. That's phenomenal growth! That tells you that the phone market is so vast that both Android and Apple can grow, grow, grow without limit for a very long time.
While it's a good idea, I see Apple creating a new cheaper phone altogether, simply because their force is the profits they make per product compared to their rivals.
Designing a new phone that would be cheaper to make than the iPhone while adaptable to the emerging markets would allow them to sell a lot more units, while differencing both model would allow them to keep the rich-man's iPhone price unchanged.
Also it would allow them to manufacture the cheaper model with more partners (increasing yield while keeping prices low), while keeping the high-end model with partners they trust will not steal technologies (not samsung ^^).
Well spotted. I too saw that. Didn't like to omit it from my post though. "Why let the truth get in the way of a good story"
Looks like someones gonna have to change their Google meta description!!
No they don't. Nokia is still the worlds largest mobile phone manufacturer: Nokia sold 352.6 million mobile phones in 2010. Macrumors is talking only about smartphone sale volumes, which is not the same thing. Apple is not even close yet of becoming the #1, and most likely won't ever 'cos Apple wont start produce "dumphones"
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If or when an Amazon tablet is released, it will never be included in Google's activation numbers if it doesn't include Google's closed source components as it will not connect to, or have access to Google's services to activate.The same applies to the cheaper "Asian knockoff phones".
Google's activation numbers are probably the best metric to see how Android is doing if you want to exclude the other devices.
NebulaClash said:Yes, it's a battle of ecosystems and Google is following the Microsoft approach, for good and for ill. The good is they can flood the worldwide market with devices running their software. The bad is the experience will vary widely for the user. The rumored Amazon tablet, for example, is supposed to be running Android. So it will get counted as an Android device. But the rumor is that Amazon will completely change the UI to make it Amazon-specific. They are allowed to do that, but that means it will be an Android device that won't act like other Android devices. But hey, it'll get counted in the contest to beat Apple.
Same thing with Asian knockoff phones that grab Android for free and put it on cheap phones. Nice experience the users will have with Android there, huh?
So yes, when the entire world floods the market with hundreds of models, you absolutely can outsell two models from one company. The shock of it would be if it didn't happen that way. But it's hardly meaningful if you get sales by flooding the system. Far more meaningful is when people ask for you by name and pay for the privilege. That's what Apple is doing. And consider this: In the first quarter of the iPhone's existence in 2007, Apple sold 1 million units. Four years later Apple sells twenty times that number in one quarter. That's phenomenal growth! That tells you that the phone market is so vast that both Android and Apple can grow, grow, grow without limit for a very long time.
If or when an Amazon tablet is released, it will never be included in Google's activation numbers if it doesn't include Google's closed source components as it will not connect to, or have access to Google's services to activate.The same applies to the cheaper "Asian knockoff phones".
Google's activation numbers are probably the best metric to see how Android is doing if you want to exclude the other devices.
christ, the only reason why Apple surpassed Nokia is due to Nokia's shipment fall. But this is competition, can't wait to see end of 2011 when Nokia finally pushes out their WP7 phones. Nokia had #1 for years, even before iPhone was launched, it's time for a change. This will give Nokia a kick in the ass to move forward quickly. This is good.
And to people saying Nokia is a dying brand, get real. You've been saying that for the last 5 years and they are still here. They are not going anywhere.
And to people saying Nokia is a dying brand, get real. You've been saying that for the last 5 years and they are still here. They are not going anywhere.
Ah, I did not know that about the activation process, so thanks for clearing that up. Whenever I read about Android numbers, it seems to be including the hundreds of Asian models, but perhaps they should not.
I'm not as big a fan of the activation metric as you seem to be. Given how rapidly Android fans seem to run through new phones, a lot of Android's numbers are applying to the same user over and over again. I think the Apple approach is simpler and more direct: Here's how many we sold. Period. None of these stupid Samsung games of saying here's how many Galaxy tabs we "shipped" to the stores, regardless of whether or not they are languishing on the shelves.
theregister.com has some more numbers. Nokia didn't only drop behind Apple, they dropped behind Samsung as well. And according to theregister, they had a profit margin of -4.5%. That's a minus. In other words, every single customer buying a Nokia phone actually cost the company money
Lol
see people keep talking about 2 ways to measure things by devices apple kicks ass as #1 and in eco system ppl tend to think that the eco system is made up by the iphone alone and that is a mistake the eco system should include the ipad and ipod touch which puts 220 mill devices sold even if only 70% of that is all thats left in the market still is an incredible number of possible buyers and when you consider the fact that the number of purchased apps and other goods on each platform still apple is on top..... and when you consider use OF THE DEVICE IT SELF SEEMS LIKE ios STILL DOMINATES THE WEB ..... if we look at satisfaction IOS is yet again on top..... if I look around me... well my boss and her boss just got new company phone(SPRINT) HTC EVO 4G... it replaced their BB's and lets just say one of the folded and went back to the BB the other played with my IPHONE for a total of 1 hour and gave up the company paid phone to instead buy her own iphone lol yea according to her (now 3 months after) she rather pay the bill her self if it saves her the problems..... Im happy being the one stuck with maintanance of the computers and phones in our small branch I have enough with tthe accient PC's to also have to worry about brand new phones that wont behave.... sorry for the rant..... but really am tired of ppl point out one side of the story and saying that adroid beats the iphone in some respects still..... lol so there you go please point out if Im wrong but u can either count device (eg. iphone vs HTC EVO) or IOS vs ANDROID and it seems to me apple leads both ways....
see people keep talking about 2 ways to measure things by devices apple kicks ass as #1 and in eco system ppl tend to think that the eco system is made up by the iphone alone and that is a mistake the eco system should include the ipad and ipod touch which puts 220 mill devices sold even if only 70% of that is all thats left in the market still is an incredible number of possible buyers and when you consider the fact that the number of purchased apps and other goods on each platform still apple is on top..... and when you consider use OF THE DEVICE IT SELF SEEMS LIKE ios STILL DOMINATES THE WEB ..... if we look at satisfaction IOS is yet again on top..... if I look around me... well my boss and her boss just got new company phone(SPRINT) HTC EVO 4G... it replaced their BB's and lets just say one of the folded and went back to the BB the other played with my IPHONE for a total of 1 hour and gave up the company paid phone to instead buy her own iphone lol yea according to her (now 3 months after) she rather pay the bill her self if it saves her the problems..... Im happy being the one stuck with maintanance of the computers and phones in our small branch I have enough with tthe accient PC's to also have to worry about brand new phones that wont behave.... sorry for the rant..... but really am tired of ppl point out one side of the story and saying that adroid beats the iphone in some respects still..... lol so there you go please point out if Im wrong but u can either count device (eg. iphone vs HTC EVO) or IOS vs ANDROID and it seems to me apple leads both ways....
The whole "we shipped x amount of units" always makes me laugh. Shipped them where? The local refuse centre?
I love how these threads always turn into a iPhone vs Android battle. It makes no sense.
iPhone is a phone and Android is an operating system. Just like Mac and Windows. Software will always outsell hardware if it is available on numerous devices. The arguement is a lose-lose for who ever is trying to argue it. I am willing to bet if iOS was available on other phones, it would put a major dent in Android sales.
Main point of the story is the iPhone is the best selling smart phone in the world. Not debatable.
iPhone is a phone and Android is an operating system. Just like Mac and Windows. Software will always outsell hardware if it is available on numerous devices. The arguement is a lose-lose for who ever is trying to argue it. I am willing to bet if iOS was available on other phones, it would put a major dent in Android sales.
Main point of the story is the iPhone is the best selling smart phone in the world. Not debatable.
Then I withdraw my statement regarding samsung, Android is an OS, thus my "+" reference and Apple may well surpass it in the future.
You must really dislike ATT's iPhone metrics then, as they not only report just activations, but those activations also include whenever the phone is sold or handed down to someone else. Thus a phone can be (and often is) counted multiple times.
Note that Apple also reports shipments from the factory, not actual end sales.
Well, Apple always sets conservative targets. Setting a low target won't hurt you too much, setting a high target and missing it will.
I'll bet they were expecting a lot more than 1%, but wouldn't say so publicly.