Smartphone sales rise 3.7% worldwide in the 4th quarter (Phone Arena News)

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Smartphone sales rise 3.7% worldwide in the 4th quarter

Smartphone sales rise 3.7% worldwide in the 4th quarter

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Published on: 11 March, 2009 by PhoneArena Team

Smartphone sales rise 3.7% worldwide in the 4th quarter

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In the midst of one of the worst quarters for businesses in decades, smartphone sales rose 3.7% worldwide in the 4th quarter of 2008 according to Gartner Research. Despite the positive sales numbers, fewer "must-have" devices and the overall economic downslide slowed down sales from the third quarter. Despite seeing their smartphone revenue drop off 17% to 15.6 million units in the last three months of 2008, Nokia remained the market leader although the percentage of the market held by the Finnish manufacturer dropped sharply from 50.9% to 40.8%. BlackBerry maker RIM was second with 19.5% of sales, up sharply from 10.9%. RIM sold 85% more smartphones over the prior year as sales hit 7.4 million handsets. In the quarter, RIM launched two handsets that were widely anticipated, the BlackBerry Bold and the BlackBerry Storm. The former is the first 'Berry with 3G capabilities while the latter is the first touchscreen model. Apple more than doubled their market share from 5.2% to 10.7 as sales increased from 1.9 million iPhones sold, to 4.1 million. Rounding out the top five is HTC with a 20% increase in sales to 1.6 million units and a 4.3% market share, and Samsung with a 4.2% share and sales of 1.6 million phones, an increase of 138%.

The market share of smartphone operating systems was led by Symbian with a 47.1% cut of the OS market, down from 62.3% due to the decline in Nokia smartphone sales. RIM replaced Windows Mobile in the runner-up position with the RIM OS garnering a 19.5% piece of the pie. Gartner's Research Director Roberta Cozza said that this year would see a major battle among the different mobile platforms as the user's experience with the UI of different smartphones gains in importance.

source: CNN

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Jyakotu @ 11 March, 2009 02:03:36 PM

What's also interesting to note is that I'm starting to see a lot of teenagers my age group (16 and up) owning smartphones as well.

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remixfa @ 11 March, 2009 03:39:53 PM

yup parents are letting them buy blackberries and iphones like crazy. way to waist money on a cool phone! :)

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Jyakotu @ 11 March, 2009 07:29:44 PM

First of, it's "waste." But yes, I do agree that teenagers shouldn't be buying smartphones because that's not the target consumer. Most of the time, my friends don't even know the phone they have IS a smartphone. I just shake my head with the lack of education they have on cell phones. That's why most teenagers should just stick with dumbphones.

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lovexlucy @ 11 March, 2009 08:23:35 PM

i agree
especially those iPhones! do they know that their parents are paying extra money each month so they can use the internet a few times

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E.N. @ 12 March, 2009 09:17:17 PM

You just have to throw in the iPhone thing didn't you. I was with you guys all the way up to that.

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Jyakotu @ 12 March, 2009 09:34:51 PM

For the record, I was mostly talking about how teenagers are owning Blackberries, Centros, etc. Smartphones for the business consumer, not the teenage market.

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