The market research firm Gartner released a quarterly report that shows Apple's iPhone currently ranks third in global smartphone sales behind only Nokia and RIM. Apple's iPhone seen the largest gain year-over-year, but Samsung had the best Q4 of 2008 in terms of growth.
Apple held firmly in third place in Q4 of 2008 with over 4 million iPhones sold in that period which accounts for 10.7 percent of global smartphone sales. In comparison, Apple sold a little over 1.9 million iPhones in Q4 of 2007 which at the time gave Apple a 5.2 percent marketshare. That's a growth of 111.6 percent in Q4 of 2008 over the same period in 2007, and is second to only Samsung who seen growth of 138 percent over the same period.
Smartphone sales slowed to the lowest growth rate ever, at just 3.7 percent in Q4 of 2008 which is attributed to the struggling economy:
"After a strong third quarter with new product introductions, sequential growth slowed down again in the fourth quarter as fewer compelling new products and the worsened economic climate continued to make data plans associated with smartphones out of reach for most consumers," said Gartner research director Roberta Cozza. "In general in 2008, the focus from vendors and operators on increasing their smartphone portfolios remained very strong. Samsung, RIM, HTC and Apple saw their volumes and share increase during 2008, thanks to their ability to offer compelling device experiences and touch interfaces."
Overall, Apple had a great 2008, coming in third place with a total of 11.4 million iPhones sold which gives it an 8.2 percent global share of total smartphones sold. Compare that with 2007 when Apple sold just 3.3 million units, an increase of 245.7 percent year-over-year. The numbers aren't so surprising when you consider that the iPhone was only launched in July of 2007.
So what will 2009 bring for Apple's super popular mobile phone? It will be an interesting year considering the global economy is still in the tank, and the market is being flooded with other application stores. You also can't forget about Palm's overly hyped Pre. It's shaping up to be quite a fight.
[via Fortune]
