Analyst firm Canalys has released its latest report detailing smartphone and PC shipments for 2011, Q4 2011 and growth from 2010/2011. The results reveal a huge growth of smartphone shipments at 62.7 per cent, while PCs saw just 14.8 per cent growth overall. It is worth noting that under the umbrella of “PCs”, also sit laptops and tablets along with desktop systems, which makes these stats even more interesting.
Looking at the raw numbers for 2011, smartphone manufacturers shipped a huge 487.7 million devices, up 63 per cent, compared with the 414.6 million that fall under the PC category, up 15 per cent.
So who of the smartphone manufacturers faired the best for 2011? You may not be surprised to hear it is Apple, beating Nokia off the top spot for the first time. The company finished the year being the leading smartphone and PC vendor, with shipments of 37 million iPhones, 15.4 million iPads and 5.2 million Macs. Samsung also ended 2011 with a bang, shipping 35.3 million smartphones in Q4 2011. Ending the year in fourth position is RIM, at a disappointing 5 per cent growth in 2011.
Taking the perspective from the platform level tells a slightly different story with Android representing 52 per cent of global smartphone shipments for year end 2011, accounting for 49 per cent of all devices shipped in 2011.
Delving a little more into those PC numbers, we can see a whopping 274 per cent increase in shipments of tablets – accounting for 15 per cent of total PC shipments. This has had a knock-on affect on desktops and notebooks, seeing a decline especially for the latter at -25.3 per cent growth 2010 – 2011.
Canalys expects numbers for smartphones to slow in 2012 though, it places this down to vendors focusing more on profitability and predicts a raise in prices for smartphones this year. You can find the full report here for lots more stats and figures.
Via Gizmodo
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