Apple knocks Nokia off top, now #1 in smartphone volume
The Cupertino crew are throwing some high five’s this morning as the announcement came that they have finally dethroned rival smart phone giant Nokia as the worlds largest producer of smart phone handsets. With a very strong second quarter charge, Apple shipped 20.34 million handsets last quarter as Nokia watched their sales slide from a heft first quarter number of 24.2 million handsets to a second quarter number of just 16.7 million. Ouch. Granted we all know about Nokia’s challenges that lie ahead and relationship with Microsoft, but this is a really nice achievement for Apple who again posted solid growth in the second quarter growing handset sales by 1.64 million units.
The interesting sidebar to this story is that if rumors are correct, we could see three flavors of iPhone’s in the marketplace for customers to choose from. The rumor suggests that Apple would be coming out with low end device which could in fact be the 3GS that would sell for a non contract price of $350. The mid device category would stay with the current iPhone 4, and then Apple would release a high end, large screen, A5 Processor, 8mp camera version which could be called the iPhone 5 or the iPhone 4S. Regardless of name or device attribute, the idea of Apple having “choices” for customers directly sets it’s sights on Android, and the huge variety of device offers they have across multiple OEMs. Even though I think the majority of existing iPhone owners would never backslide into lessor model, the majority preferring to stand in line for the latest, this may in fact attract newer non techie consumers who have always been on the fence but never jumped because of price.
Whether you like Apple and the iPhone or not, this year is really going to finish strong for not only Apple, but for consumers as well.
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lets wait and see after Windows Phone launch!
this is just smartphones !!!! nokia shipped over 85 Million devices , so they keep the first position fort biggest amount of mobile phones, far away from Apple.
Murali I can answer that for you — both Apple and Samsung will be on top by whenever the Sea Doo comes out and Nokia will never reclaim this throne.
While I’m explaining the future for you, here’s what’s not going to change: Microsoft will never either invest more resources or generate nearly as much revenue in their own phone operations as they will off the back of Android with their patent misuse/trolling/extortion/shakedown operations. And before you try to tell me that they have a right to protect their intellectual property and R&D fruits, read the patents involved, then you’ll change your tune and agree that that is an accurate characterization of their Android licensing activities. Or if you refuse to bother to do that and just think I’m flapping my lip, you’ve got to admit, that’s pretty sad that they’re a powerful company, they got in the smartphone game relatively early and they apparently still want to break into the market really badly yet all they do is conduct stupid mock funerals and celebrate when they overtake webOS, pulling in more dough by suing and threatening to sue people who find Android to be a more appealing direction.
The notion that there’s a world of people loyal to the Nokia brand will usher a massive amount of developers and sales into Windows Phone will prove mostly imaginary. The notion that Microsoft is a brilliant business decision for Nokia is as well and you can expect to see Nokia hedge their Microsoft bet harder and harder with moves like letting this N9 steal Windows Phone’s impending thunder, which is what it’s doing. They will keep as many hands as deeply as they can in Symbian and MeeGo as they are able to. What will not happen is the release of the Nokia Windows Phone and subsequent phones will be such a hit, which is what you think it will be, to make them think hey wait a minute let’s stop that other crap and ride this pony. Sales will be very underwhelming at best.
Like the failure of the Apocalypse to occur throughout history with groups of people getting together picking a date and getting all excited about it and then when it doesn’t happen as scheduled they just pick another date and wait, you look accordingly on what you just called the Windows Phone launch. This Nokia thing though, this will be your Great Disappointment in terms of how psyched all of you are for this and how it, like every single flat-fall you’ve shrugged off, will fall flat. But hey, Nokia, why not get a little OEM change of scenery for yourselves. Mango baby!
humm… Maybe now they are no1, we can treat Apple the same way than Apple and fanboyz have treaten Microsoft when it was in same position: As dangerous as a World-controling-company… 😀 funny