Canalys has posted their Q4 2011 global smartphone research report and it appears that for the first time, ever, smartphones have outshipped PCs.
158.5 million smartphones were shipped during the quarter, for a total of 488 million on the year. The figure was a huge 63 percent jump from the 300 million shipped in 2010. PCs, on the other hand, only saw a 15 percent bump to 414.6 million units, including tablets like the iPad.
Says 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. But pads have had negligible impact on smartphone volumes and markets across the globe have seen persistent and substantial growth through 2011. Smartphone shipments overtaking those of client PCs should be seen as a significant milestone.
In the space of a few years, smartphones have grown from being a niche product segment at the high-end of the mobile phone market to becoming a truly mass-market proposition. The greater availability of smartphones at lower price points has helped tremendously, but there has been a driving trend of increasing consumer appetite for Internet browsing, content consumption and engaging with apps and services on mobile devices.”
Apple was the top smartphone and PC vendor during the quarter, selling 37 million iPhones, 15 million iPads and just over 5 million Macs. Altogether, the company shipped 93.1 million iPhones during the year, barely beating out Samsung who also finished strong and ended with 91.9 million smartphones shipped for the year.
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Result for: mobile phone
Bloomberg has reported this weekend that Nokia has lost so much value over the past few years that its stock is now worth 50 percent less than if the company was sold and broken up.
At its peak, Nokia was worth $300 billion before Apple and Google introduced their smartphone operating systems but is now worth just over $25 billion.
If you were to separate its mobile, infrastructure equipment, mapping software and accounting businesses, Bloomberg says the company would be worth $39 billion, based on current comparable valuations of patents.
There has been speculation that Microsoft is willing to buy Nokia’s mobile phone business, but Nokia has denied the rumors.
Nokia’s stock currently trades at $6.65 per share, the lowest it has since 1998.
Result for: mobile phone
LG has filed a complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission this week, asking the ITC to block the import of the Sony PlayStation 3.
The company is claiming that the Blu-ray drive in every PS3 console violates multiple LG patents.
Sony, Sony Corporation of America, Sony Electronics, Sony Computer Entertainment and Sony Computer Entertainment America are all cited in the complaint, says Cnet.
The patents in question relate to “the way a Blu-ray player reproduces data from a Blu-ray disc” and how it “reproduces multiple data streams by way of multiple camera angles.”
Finally, LG says Sony is violating a patent relating to the display of subtitles in Blu-ray films.
LG’s choice, over 1500 days after the PS3 launched in the U.S., seems like a direct retaliation for Sony’s complaint filed with the ITC late last year over patent violations in mobile phones.
