According to Gartner, Android has moved into second place in global smartphone sales, as of the Q3 2010.
The mobile OS saw 1400 percent growth year-over-year, thanks to strong sales of new devices.
Apple continued strong growth as well, seeing 91 percent growth year-on-year on an already established brand.
Adds Gartner research vice president Carolina Milanesi: “This is the third consecutive double-digit increase in sales year-on-year, indicating that consumer demand is healthy. This quarter saw Apple and Android drive record smartphone sales.”
Smartphone sales almost doubled, exploding from 41 million to 81 million year-over-year.
In the smartphone market, Symbian remained king, with a 36.6 percent market share. Android took second at 25.5 percent, and iOS took 16.7 percent, good for third. BlackBerry moved down to fourth, with 14.8 percent.
Windows Mobile and other mobile OS accounted for the remaining 6.4 percent.
Result for: health
Responding to a request from the Office of the US Trade Representative, the MPAA has posted a list of the most “notorious markets” for pirated digital goods outside of the U.S.
The list includes a number of torrent and warez sites that are well known, as well as file-hosting sites and newsgroups clients.
Bob Pisano, interim CEO and President of the MPAA, submitted the list in response to the Office of the US Trade Representative’s request for a list of “notorious markets” outside of the U.S.
Pisano noted that 46 percent of revenue brought in by MPAA-member companies is from overseas.
“MPAA has a strong interest in the health and sustainability of these international markets and appreciates USTR’s interest in identifying notorious markets that threaten legitimate commerce, impair legitimate markets’ viability and curb U.S. competitiveness and hurt our overall economic strength. It is critical that our trading partners protect and enforce intellectual property rights,” says Pisano.
Result for: health
LG Display has increased fears of rapid supply growth of LCD panels by announcing it is considering constructing a new LCD production line to meet demands. Manufacturers of LCD television products have been enjoying a healthy level of demand for LCD flat-screens, bolstered recently by Chinese holidays and sporting events like the Winter Olympics.
However, concerns are taking root in the industry that it may return to a state of oversupply as manufacturers beef up production to capitalize on the demand. Controlling supply is important for players in the industry to maintain profit margins for the technology.
“Although demand is strong, growing capacity will become increasingly burdensome for the industry,” said Jason Kang, an analyst at NH Investment & Securities. “Supply is already growing and the growth will be faster next year.”
LG plans to begin operation of a separate production line in the first half of 2010, while Taiwanese rivals are increasing factory utilization. “We are considering increasing capacity because we have been unable to meet all client demand for some time,” said an LG Display spokesman. “But nothing has been decided yet.”
LG Display CFO James Jeong revealed to investors just last month that the company was meeting under 90 percent of orders received and that the situation was likely to continue for months.
