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: negligible impact
According to a few reports and earnings from UK based ISPs, there has been a sharp increase in bandwidth costs thanks to the BBC iPlayer.
The BBC announced that in its first month of operation, January 2008, 2.2 million people watched at least one program using the service which led to almost a tripling in streaming costs for at least one ISP, PlusNet.
The actual cost per user per month for PlusNet rose from 6.1p to 18.3p, meaning the internet TV service is costing the ISP a hefty sum.
Ashley Highfield however, the BBC’s director of future media and technology, has said that the iPlayer has “negligible impact on the UK internet infrastructure”.
