By
Telecom Lead Team: The total global smart phones shipments for the year 2011
were 488 million units, up 63 percent. The client PC market grew 15 percent in
2011 to 414.6 million units, with 274 percent growth in pad shipments. Pads
accounted for 15 percent of all client PC shipments in 2011, according to
Canalys.
In
2011 we saw a fall in demand for netbooks, and slowing demand for notebooks and
desktops as a direct result of rising interest in pads,” said Chris Jones, VP
and principal analyst of Canalys.
Vendors
shipped 158.5 million smart phones in Q4 2011, up 57 percent on the 101.2
million units shipped in Q4 2010.
Apple
shipped 37.0 million iPhones in Q4 2011, defeated Nokia’s previous record of
28.3 million shipments in Q4 2010. Apple shipped 93.1 million iPhones in 2011,
representing growth of 96 percent over 2010.
Samsung
shipped 35.3 million smart phones in Q4 2011 under its own brand, bringing its
total to 91.9 million for the year, compared to just 24.9 million in 2010. This
excludes shipments of rebranded products, such as the Nexus S and Galaxy Nexus,
which Canalys counts under the Google brand.
Nokia
shipped 19.6 million smart phones, down 31 percent from the record high of a
year earlier, but up 17 percent on Q3 2011. The total was helped by 1.2 million
and 0.6 million shipments of its Windows Phone and MeeGo-based products
respectively. Its total smart phone shipments for the year came in at 77.3
million globally.
Its
first Windows Phone products, the Lumia 800 and 710, along with the recently
announced Lumia 900 through AT&T in the US, have improved the outlook for
Nokia,” said Canalys Senior Analyst, Tim Shepherd.
RIM’s
ended the year as the fourth largest smart phone vendor and delivering annual
unit growth of 5 percent.
The
appointment of Thorsten Heins as CEO will bring new energy to the company while
ensuring that it does not radically deviate from its overall strategy in this
transitional year. However, 2012 will become even more competitive and RIM
needs BlackBerry 10 devices out there to ensure it retains its status as a
major player,” said Pete Cunningham, principal analyst at Canalys.
At a
platform level, Android accounted for 52 percent of global smart phones
shipments in Q4 2011, with iOS representing 23 percent and Symbian 12 percent.
Android
was also the leading smart phone platform by volume for the whole year,
accounting for 49 percent of all devices shipped in 2011 and ahead of iOS with
19 percent share and Symbian with 16 percent.
Canalys
revealed that collectively, Android smart phone shipments grew 149 percent year
on year in Q4 2011 to 81.9 million units, resulting in a total of 237.8 million
for the full year, up 244 percent on 2010.
