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IDC: nearly 1 billion 'smart connected devices' shipped last year
Know that gadget you're currently using to read this article? It may be one of 916 million "smart connected devices" that shipped in 2011, with global revenue totaling some $489 billion last year. But the IDC expects that figure to jump to 1.1 billion for 2012, with a total of 1.84 billion new web-connected gadgets hitting the market in 2016. Those numbers include most devices that connect to the internet, such as tablets, smartphones and x86-compatible PCs -- the latter of which now represent 36.9 percent of the market, but will slip to a 25.1-percent share in 2016. Android's piece of the pie will grow from 29.4 percent to 31.1 percent by 2016, while iOS will make the jump from 14.6 to 17.3 percent in the same timeframe. IDC reps say that Asia will be partially responsible for increased smartphone sales, where mobile operators in China are subsidizing purchases to make devices more accessible to consumers. Do you plan to take possession of one of the 1.1 billion gadgets that IDC expects will ship this year? Jump past the break and let us know in the comments.
IDC says 100.9M smartphones sold in fourth quarter, PCs outsold for first time
In case you had any lingering doubt that the smartphone is the new personal computer, just take a glance at IDC's new global smartphone sales numbers for the fourth quarter of 2010 where we learn that some 100.9 million units were pushed in the three-month period -- up a whopping 87.9 percent year over year. That figure compares to 92.1 million PCs sold during the same quarter, which, though a record for the PC industry, was left in the dust of the smartphone's stratospheric rise. This marks the very first quarter in history that smartphones have outsold traditional computers -- and considering the trajectories that both industries are in, we'd be surprised if they ever flip-flopped again. If anything, IDC and other analysis firms might need to readjust the nomenclature in their reports in a few years if (or when) convergence platforms like the Atrix 4G with its Laptop Dock start to gain traction. Of course, to Bill Gates and others, this technological cross-pollination comes as no surprise -- and really, who can argue with a handheld that's packing PC power? Update: It's also worth pointing out that IDC is still calling Symbian "the market leader" seemingly discounting Canalys' assertion that Android has overtaken Nokia's smartphone OS globally. Guess it all depends upon how your define "smartphone," eh?
