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Internet Explorer holds onto top browser crown while Chrome and Firefox tussle over second place
Both Net Applications and StatCounter have released their figures for browser market share for 2011 and it makes for largely unsurprising reading. Internet Explorer's full share has dropped but it still maintains the top spot -- a 52 percent share according to Net Applications and 39 percent according to StatCounter. Meanwhile, second place remains tantalizingly within reach for Chrome, which has made headway catching up with Firefox, whose growth had apparently stalled during 2011. According to Net Applications, Firefox held a 21.8 percent share of browser users this month, while Chrome reached 19.1 percent, up just under 8 percent and capping off a second year of impressive growth. Meanwhile, StatCounter pegs Google's browser at second place for the end of the year, claiming 27.3 percent versus the 25.3 percent share grabbed by its vulpine rival. Unsurprisingly, the Windows Team Blog takes a different slant on recent browsing trends, trumpeting that its latest version, Internet Explorer 9, continues to grow on Windows 7. This is, however, balanced out by a corresponding drop in the users of its predecessor, IE 8. Better luck next year, eh, Microsoft?
iPhone share rises in US, UK, Australia; falls on European continent
Sometimes it seems like just about everyone in the US has an iPhone. A report by Kantar Worldpanel ComTech that was highlighted by Reuters today shows that the iPhone's share of the US smartphone market jumped from 25 percent during the run-up to Christmas last year to 36 percent during the same period this year. The iPhone saw similar gains in the UK, where the iPhone's share of the market rose from 21 percent to 31 percent year-over-year, and in Australia. However, things weren't so rosy for Apple on the European continent, where cost-conscious buyers are forgoing the more pricey iPhones and buying cheaper Android smartphones instead. According to Kantar, the iPhone's market share dropped from 29 to 20 percent in France, and in Germany the share went from 27 to 22 percent. Similar declines were echoed in Spain and Italy. The overall Euro zone GDP rose a paltry .2 percent in the third quarter of 2011, and it is expected to contract in the fourth quarter. Government spending cuts and job losses are depriving companies of demand for goods and exports, trickling down to consumers who are keeping a close eye on their spending. [via Apple 2.0]
Samsung battles Apple in Australia/NZ phone market as patent fight expands
There's rarely a day anymore that TUAW doesn't report on the status of one or more patent infringement lawsuits. The latest from the battle between Apple and Samsung is that the Cupertino company has now issued a notice of infringement to Samsung in Australia, noting that Samsung's case design for its phones and Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet are infringing on Apple's patents. Apple's notice of infringement, as reported by Bloomberg, identifies 10 patents that the company believes Samsung is violating. At this point, the new claims will be piled onto more than 30 other lawsuits the companies have filed against each other. Samsung can point to hopeful signs Down Under, though. IDC today reported that Samsung has overtaken Apple in the combined Australia and New Zealand mobile phone market, where 65% of all phones sold qualify as smartphones. The numbers are a bit confusing in the IDC press release, so we are reaching out to them for clarification from the main research report; it's not clear whether it's Samsung specifically or Android-based phones overall that have overtaken Apple's 36% market share in Australia. In New Zealand, iPhone shipments slowed in preparation for the launch of the iPhone 4S, allowing Samsung to capture the lead for smartphone shipments in that country by pushing the Galaxy S II and Galaxy 5. Other manufacturers, including Huawei, are making inroads as well by selling low-cost smartphones. Apple holds third place in the NZ market with 13% overall share, but most likely the reason for a poor quarter there is all in the timing -- the iPhone 4S didn't launch in New Zealand until well after the Australian version went on sale, starting shipments on November 11. Pricing and carrier subsidies in NZ are also a bit more stringent than elsewhere; Vodafone requires an NZ$85/month plan for 2 years to discount the 16GB iPhone 4S from an eyepopping NZ$1049 down to a manageable NZ$149 purchase cost. IDC's Yee-Kuan Lau reported that for 2011, Android will win "by a hair in the Australian smartphones tussle," while in New Zealand, "Android is expected to widen the gap and maintain the lead in the smartphones market." [via The Next Web and The Verge]
StatCounter: Chrome leapfrogs Firefox for the first time, still trails Internet Explorer
StatCounter has just released its latest global report on web browser usage, and it's something of a doozy. According to the analytics firm, Google Chrome overtook Mozilla Firefox for the first time this month, becoming the world's second most widely used browser. During November, Chrome accounted for about 25.7 percent of the global market, up from a measly 4.66 percent in 2009, and slightly higher than the 25.2 percent that Firefox pulled down this month. It still trails Internet Explorer, however, which enjoys a healthy 40.6 percent market share globally, and a 50.7 percent share in the US. As the above graph clearly demonstrates, though, both IE and Firefox have seen notable declines in recent months, though the latter still has a slim lead over Chrome in the US market, with a 20.9 percent share, compared with Google's 17.3 percent cut. For more country-specific stats and crunchy numbers, check out the source link, below.
Talking Points Memo sees Windows visitors decline, Mac and iOS users soar
The progressive left-leaning political news site Talking Points Memo issued an interesting set of (non-partisan) statistics that shows just how much the share of total devices running Microsoft Windows has declined in the last five years. As you can see from the chart above, in 2006 78% of visitors to TPM were using devices running some flavor of Windows (blue line). Total share of Windows devices started a rapid decline in the years that followed, thanks mostly in part to the increasing popularity of Macs (red line). By 2009, Windows devices had fallen 13% while Mac devices rose by 10%. But what's really interesting is what started to happen in 2009. With the rise of mobile devices like the iPhone 3G, mobile visits (green line) to the site skyrocketed from 3% in 2009 to 14% in 2011. More interesting is that mobile devices continued to take a huge chunk away from Windows devices. While Mac usage on the site only declined 2% between 2009-2011, Windows usage took a big dip, going from 65% to 57%. TPM does note that the sites visitors tend to slant towards the Mac-favoring side anyway, but still founder Josh Marshall rightly points out that that the decline of visitors running a Microsoft OS from 78% in 2006 to only 57% is huge. TPM further notes that the breakdown of mobile OS traffic is about 77% iOS and 23% all other mobile OSs. When you combine the 28% OS X traffic with the iOS traffic, devices that use an Apple OS account for a whopping 40% of the site's traffic. Not bad for a company that only had a 20% share of the traffic just five years ago. [via Daring Fireball]
Gartner shows iOS lost smartphone share to Android in Q3 2011
Although Apple is selling iPhones like the proverbial hotcake, iOS lost market share in the worldwide smartphone market in the third quarter of 2011. What's remarkable is that sales of the iPhone actually grew during that time, according to sales information from Gartner. As noted in a post on AppleInsider, Apple sold 17.3 million iPhones in that quarter for a market share slice of 15 percent. That makes the iPhone the third-largest smartphone platform in the world. But the market share was actually down year-to-year, with the 2010 figure at 16.6 percent. The Android mobile operating system ate up that share, with 60.5 million smartphones sold in the third quarter of 2011 -- that's a whopping 52.5 percent of all smartphones sold in that period. A year ago, 20.5 million Android smartphones were sold for a 25.3 percent share of the market. Nokia's Symbian OS still ranks in the second spot, but the 16.9 percent market share pales in comparison with the 36.3 percent figure for the year before. Other losers are RIM, with a market share dropping from 15.4 percent in 2010 to 11 percent in 2011 and Microsoft, which watched its 2.7 percent share melt to 1.5 percent in 2011. Now that Apple has two "bargain" iPhone models in the market -- the iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS -- as well as a technically advanced top-of-the-line model in the iPhone 4S, it should be interesting to see if the company is able to weather the onslaught of Android phones for the critical holiday quarter of 2011.
Apple the most desired PC in China
China is one of Apple's most desirable markets, due to the growing middle class and the huge population base of over 1.3 billion people. It appears that the love goes both ways, as Macs are considered to be the most desirable brands of personal computer in China. Investment firm Morgan Stanley, in an AlphaWise survey polling 1,553 Chinese consumers this summer, found that while very few Chinese currently own Macs, many are considering a Mac for their next purchase. Only five percent of the survey respondents currently had Apple as the manufacturer of their existing PC, but 21 percent said they'd consider a Mac. Should Chinese consumers follow through, Apple would be the second place supplier of PCs to the nation, behind China-based Lenovo. Most of the respondents said that they want a MacBook Pro or Air, which mirrors the trend towards laptops worldwide. Apple is also dominating and will continue to rule the tablet sector -- currently 65 percent of respondents said that they had an Apple tablet, and 68 percent will consider an iPad for their next tablet. Earlier this year Morgan Stanley's research showed that Apple is the leading smartphone brand in China, overtaking Nokia as the market leader. Almost 40 percent of respondents in that survey said they'd buy an iPhone for their next handset, which is over four times the company's current share.
Timber! iOS and Android take 60 percent cut of mobile gaming dollars
The last time we reported on these figures, paid iOS and Android games were chipping away happily at the US market share of those two old oaks, Sony and Nintendo. Well, peer through the cloud of leaves and sawdust and you'll see that the job is done: the two newcomers will generate $500 million more than DS and PSP titles this year, according to stats from Flurry. Click past the break to see the trend since 2009 crystallized into a cold, hard pie chart. On the other hand, there's a bit of good news for everybody: the overall American mobile gaming market is growing at a rapid pace -- this year's total revenue of $3.3 billion represents a 25 percent increase on 2010, so new devices like the PlayStation Vita and the Transformer Prime should find plenty of room to take seed.
Nielsen: Soon-to-be seniors adopting smartphones faster than any other age group
If your granny recently purchased her very first smartphone, she's not alone. According to the latest Q3 figures from Nielsen, Americans between the ages of 55 and 64 are adopting smartphones at a faster rate than any other age group. Just about 30 percent of all mobile-equipped, soon-to-be seniors now own a smartphone, marking a five percent jump over Q2 of this year. But they still have a long way to go before catching up with the 25-34-year-old population, 62 percent of which wield an intelligent handset -- higher than any other age demographic. Overall smartphone penetration stands at 43 percent across US cellphone owners, with Android (still) leading the way with 43 percent of the OS market, and Apple leading all manufacturers, with a 28 percent share. Check out the full report at the source link below, or head past the break for a more graphic demographic breakdown.
10 percent of US mobile phones are iPhones; Apple earns half of all industry profits
Two reports have come out which show the immense impact Apple's iPhone has had on the mobile market. The first report from comScore indicates that one in ten mobile customers in the US owns an iPhone of some kind. That's not just smartphone customers; that's all mobile customers. Given that just four years ago pundits laughed off Apple's goal of gaining a modest one percent of the market, that's a pretty incredible milestone. comScore's numbers show Apple is fourth in overall handset market share in the US, behind Samsung, LG, and Motorola. The firm's other numbers seem to indicate that a large portion of that gap is due to those companies splitting the still huge feature phone market between them, while Apple naturally sells only the iPhone. Google continues to "win" the market share race among US smartphone owners, with Android handsets claiming nearly half of all subscribers compared to Apple's more modest 27 percent share. However, another report from Canaccord Genuity (via Forbes) shows that Apple's "loss" to Android in terms of market share means next to nothing; Apple earns 52 percent of all profits in the mobile phone industry. Once again, that's not just smartphone profits, but all profits for all phones. Samsung is the closest thing Apple has to a competitor when we talk about the actual amount of money companies make from handset sales, with 29 percent of the industry's profits. (Clearly, Samsung's, er, strategy is working out well.) All other handset makers are holding on to an extremely small share of mobile industry profits. Once-mighty Nokia, which held an incredible two-thirds of all mobile industry profits in 2007, now accounts for only four percent of overall profits. All other handset makers, including RIM, are either earning a niche amount of profits or facing huge financial losses. Motorola has posted a net loss every year since 2007, which makes Google's $10 billion acquisition of the company seem that much odder. None of this is to say that Apple can afford to stop innovating now that it's positioned itself at the undisputed top of the mobile industry's financial heap. Nokia is a perfect example of just how far a company can fall if it rests on its laurels for too long, but it seems unlikely that Apple will make that mistake.
Internet Explorer does less than 50 percent of world's web surfing, Chrome on the come-up
It's been a long and winding road for Internet Explorer, Microsoft's venerable web browser, and for over a decade it's been the browser of choice for most netizens. According to Net Marketshare's latest numbers, however, IE now enables just under half of the world's total -- meaning mobile and desktop combined -- web traffic after owning 95 percent of the browsing market seven years ago. The decline is at least partially due to a rise in mobile web browsing and an increasing Chrome user base. Of course, Microsoft's finest still has a healthy 52.63 percent desktop market share, which gives it a sizable lead over the competition from Firefox (23 percent), Chrome (18 percent), and Safari (five percent). There's plenty more graphs and charts to show you exactly how the browser war is going, so hit the links below for the full pie-chart treatment.
Canalys: HTC nips Apple, Samsung to become top smartphone vendor in US for Q3 2011
Boo! No, that's not your doorbell ringing again, that's HTC popping out of nowhere in order to toss a Nah-nah-nah-boo-boo in the direction of Samsung and Apple. Just days after Strategy Analytics published a global smartphone shipment report for Q3 2011, Canalys -- another formidable name in the sector -- has pushed out a report of its own. Not surprisingly, the global figures line up almost precisely with what we'd already heard, with Samsung's Q3 numbers rising above those from Apple, Nokia and the rest of the industry. The difference here, however, is the focal point on the US of A. Here in the States, Taiwan's own HTC is pulling rank; the aforesaid handset maker edged out Apple and Samsung by shipping 5.7 million smartphones. All told, it owned "around a quarter of the market," with Samsung (4.9 million) claiming the second spot and Apple (4.6 million) pulling in for the bronze. Conspicuously absent from the leader board? RIM, which saw its volume decline 58 percent from a year ago and its US market share sink from 24 percent in Q3 2010 to just 9 percent this quarter. Our take? HTC (and Samsung, from a global perspective) best enjoy it while the quarter lasts -- as soon as the iPhone 4S and Nokia's spate of Windows Phone devices start figuring in, we're guessing that the top spots will be completely up for grabs all over again.
IDC: Samsung, ZTE see jump in mobile shipments, Apple slides to fifth place
Q3 earnings reports have been pouring in over the past few days, which means it's time to check in with IDC on the state of the mobile market. The research firm's latest report, released today, is something of a mixed bag. On the one hand, Q3 global shipments increased by 12.8 percent year-over-year -- higher than the 9.3 percent that IDC had predicted for the quarter and the 9.8 percent growth observed last quarter. At the same time, however, the market grew at the second slowest pace in two years and shipments to Western Europe and the US actually declined over the year, something the company attributes to more restrained consumer spending and more widespread economic uncertainty. On the company level, both Samsung and ZTE came away as the biggest winners this quarter; Sammy's shipments increased by 23 percent over the year, good for second place, while ZTE's shot up by a whopping 57.9 percent, launching the company into fourth place. Apple, meanwhile, saw 26.2 percent growth in its shipments and a slight bump in market share, but still couldn't avoid getting leapfrogged by ZTE and dropping down to fifth place. And then there's LG, which had by far the worst quarter, relative to Q3 2010. The manufacturer saw shipments decline by nearly 26 percent over the year, while its market share slipped to 5.4 percent. All these horses, however, are still chasing Nokia, which saw a small drop in shipments, but managed to hang on to the top spot, with over 106 million shipments during the quarter -- good for 27 percent of the market. For more numbers and insight, check out the full PR after the break.
Samsung claims top spot in global smartphone shipments for Q3 2011, Apple slips to number two
On this edition of As The Smartphone World Turns..., we've got Samsung violently snatching victory from the jaws of Apple, claiming its spot at the top of global smartphone vendors once more. Dramatics aside, the latest shipment figures tallied up by Strategy Analytics are showing that worldwide smartphone shipments are up 44 percent year-over-year, reaching a staggering 117 million units in Q3 2011. Digging into that a bit, we're told that Samsung has overtaken Apple from a units-shipped standpoint, with Sammy moving 28 million smartphones and claiming 24 percent of the market share. If you'll recall, Apple briefly grabbed hold of numero uno last quarter, but has now fallen a rung with 15 percent of the global pie. Of course, things could be dramatically different when we see Q4 2011 figures roll out -- remember, Q3 2011 was the last quarter in a long string with the aging iPhone 4 as Apple's "newest" device. Stranger still, Nokia is slotted third with just 14 percent of the global share, representing a precipitous drop from 33 percent a year ago. Similarly, Nokia's fortunes are apt to change with both the N9 finally out and its spate of Windows Phone devices heading out in short order. Hop on past the break for the full breakdown.
IDC and Gartner: Lenovo leaps past Dell for second place, still trails HP for the gold
IDC and Gartner have come out with their latest Q3 rankings of the world's PC manufacturers, which means it's time for us to do some dissecting. Not much changed at the top of the heap, where, according to IDC, HP still rules the roost with about 18 percent market share (despite that whole PC biz spinoff thing). But the most dramatic shift came from Lenovo, which scurried past Dell for second place, with 13.7 percent market share (13.5, according to Gartner) -- a 36.1 percent jump from the third quarter of 2010 (25.2 percent, says Gartner). Dell's pie slice, on the other hand, shrunk slightly to 12 percent this quarter, down from 12.6 percent last year. On the global scale, meanwhile, PC sales increased by about 3.6 percent compared to Q3 2010 (3.2 percent, in Gartner's books), though both research firms acknowledged that this figure was well below their respective projections. Why? IDC points to several economic factors, including the threat of a double-dip recession, while Gartner blames the rise of "non-PC devices," including tablets. Surprise!
Microsoft exec says Windows phone is cure for iPhone monotony
Andy Lees, President of Microsoft's Windows Phone division, believes the time is now for Windows Phone 7 to gain some ground on its competiton. Lees see Android as chaotic with too many choices, and the Apple iPhone 4S as a missed opportunity because it offers only a minor improvement in hardware and software. The latest Mango version of Windows Phone, Lees points out, has a hardware standard that limits fragmentation and a fresh, new UI that sets it apart from Android and iOS. Lees is optimistic about Windows Phone and analysts are, too. Though Windows Phone now trails most mobile platforms with only 2% market share, Gartner research group predicts Windows Phone will expand and eventually grab 20% market share by 2015.
"Apple Shock" and its effect on the IT industry
It's well known in the Wintel PC industry that Apple has been kicking butt and taking names. Starting last year, Apple's iPad and second-generation MacBook Air started doing some serious damage to many of its competitors. Digitimes Research senior analyst Joanne Chien has a name for this -- Apple Shock -- and says that the effect has expanded as the global economic downturn has worsened. Chien says that Apple Shock has affected the PC market in three ways. First, combined shipments of the iPad and MacBook Air have surpassed all other brand vendors in the mobile computing device market in 2011 (see graph above). Next, Chien notes the impact to the market for notebook computers. The iPad has swallowed up a huge amount of demand for devices that are aimed at mobile internet surfing, accelerating the move of the notebook industry into the mature phase of the standard product life cycle. Between the economic downturn and the impact of the iPad, global notebook shipments are expected to drop this year. Finally, Apple Shock affects the Wintel structure, PC brands, and the supply chain for PC companies. Chien says that all of the players are now "working aggressively" to fight against "their common enemy, Apple." PC companies are beginning to shift their focus from only producing hardware to also adding software to the mix, and suppliers are moving from providing only product designs to adding other services. Chien's article finishes with the comment that the entrance of the notebook market into the mature phase of the product lifecycle is inevitable, and that the industry is going to experience a "period of reformation" that is expected to cause continued turmoil for PC makers.
ComScore: Android extends lead over Apple, holds 44 percent of smartphone market
Gather 'round, everyone, because a fresh batch of ComScore numbers has just arrived. According to the research firm, Android remains in firm control of the smartphone platform market, commanding 43.7 percent, followed by Apple (27.3 percent) and RIM (19.7 percent). In fact, Google extended its share by nearly two points over last month's figures, while Apple's iOS grew by just 0.3 points, but further distanced itself from RIM, which now sits 7.6 points behind. On the manufacturing side of the equation, Samsung remains top dog, accounting for 25.3 percent of all mobile subscribers (including both smartphone and feature phone users), followed by LG (21 percent) and Motorola (14 percent). Apple, meanwhile, sits a distant fourth, at 9.8 percent, followed by RIM, which rounds out the top five with 7.1 percent market share. Number crunchers can find more fodder in the full PR, after the break.
Tim Cook: Macbook Pro and iMac are the best selling notebook and desktop in the US
Tim Cook kicked off today's 'Let's talk iPhone' event by the numbers, mentioning that "the MacBook Pro and iMac are the number one best selling notebook and desktop in the United States." Apparently the Mac platform grew by 23 percent over the last year, versus a four percent growth from the PC sector. Brandishing a chart tracing the trend back five years, Cook says that Apple is now pushing 60 million Mac users worldwide, leaving Cupertino just shy of owning a fourth of the personal computer market. "There are still 77 percent of people who are buying something else," Cook said, "We have an incredibly high ceiling here. We have a long way to go."
Report suggests iOS hit all-time market share high
Last week, TUAW reported on the recent rise in the market share of Mac OS X. The numbers, compiled by Net Applications, show a rising acceptance of Mac OS X in the global marketplace. Now Net Applications is reporting that iOS has hit an all-time market share high of 54.65 percent. As you can see from the chart above, iOS has been slowly but surely gaining market share, mostly at the expense of the Java ME and Symbian mobile operating systems. Android has been steadily gaining share as well; in less than a year, Android's share of the mobile OS market has risen from 10.27 percent up to 16.26 percent. That gain, while less dramatic than what iOS accomplished, is still quite steady and demonstrates that flooding the market with a plethora of devices from different manufacturers is just as effective as one really good device from a single manufacturer at gaining market acceptance. Net Applications provides usage share statistics by compiling information on which browsers are used to access various websites. document.getElementById("na634532341243105427").src="http://www.netmarketshare.com/report-base.aspx?qprid=9"+String.fromCharCode(38)+"qpcustomb=1"+String.fromCharCode(38)+"qpf=16"+String.fromCharCode(38)+"qpwidth=456"+String.fromCharCode(38)+"qpdisplay=1111"+String.fromCharCode(38)+"qpmr=10"+String.fromCharCode(38)+"site="+window.location.hostname
