Apple had an extraordinary Q4 2011 (Q1 for Cupertino), selling no less than 37 million iPhone terminals in just three months. We are talking about a 128% increase in sales compared to the same period of 2010 and thanks to Apple ranked on the third place in the top of mobile phone sellers with a market share of 8.7%. Of course, the success of those from Apple brought them the 3rd place in the top of the largest mobile phone manufacturers in 2011, this being the first time that the company from Cupertino occupies this position. Compared to sales in 2010, Apple almost doubled the number of units sold in 2011 and had the highest growth among all mobile phone manufacturers.
Apple jumped into the third spot globally from the fifth spot last quarter thanks to a record-breaking quarter of shipments. That represents the Cupertino-based company's highest-ever ranking on IDC's Top 5 global mobile phone leaderboard. The launch of Apple's iPhone 4S smartphone, which is now available in over 90 countries (as of mid-January), was the primary reason the company jumped over LG and ZTE in 4Q11. Device sales in the US and Japan were particularly strong given extra sales days in the quarter and carrier distribution.
For a company like Apple, we are talking about a premiere that seemed impossible a few years ago considering that it has only 3 smartphone models for sale. The rest of the direct competitors have dozens of models on offer and Samsung and Nokia together sold almost 750 million such mobile phones in 2011, but each of them sold fewer smartphones than Apple in Q2 and Q4 2011. I for one believe that in the future Apple will also fight for the 2nd place, but everything depends on how it will manage to capture the interest of users for the future iPhones.
