03-14-2009, 03:00 PM
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Contributing Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 8,228
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Gartner Releases 2008 Smartphone Market Share Data
"In the fourth quarter of 2008, worldwide sales of smartphones to end users reached 38.1 million units, an increase of 3.7 per cent on the fourth quarter of 2007, according to Gartner, Inc. Global sales of smartphones for 2008 reached 139.3 million devices, up 13.9 per cent compared with 2007." By vendor, HTC was ranked 4th selling 5.8 million units, about half of what the iPhone sold. For operating systems, Windows Mobile came in third with 16.5 million licenses. RIM's Blackberry was second with 23.1 million licenses. Symbian was first, but for some reason, I just don't count that as a serious smartphone platform since it is so fragmented and many users with a Nokia treat their phone like a feature phone, never installing an app or syncing with anything.
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03-14-2009, 03:53 PM
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Thinker
Join Date: Feb 2005
Posts: 471
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How is Symbian fragmented? UIQ is dead. Symbian = S60 these days. Symbian is certainly no more fragmented than Windows Mobile.
I agree that a lot of users don't install apps on their Symbian phones but my experience is that the carriers sure do. You wouldn't believe the trash that the UK carriers pre-install.
The common theme between the most successful smartphones is that they can be used like feature phones. Complicated smartphones appeal to a niche market.
Last edited by Stinger; 03-14-2009 at 03:55 PM..
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03-14-2009, 05:11 PM
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Oracle
Join Date: May 2003
Posts: 984
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Was Microsoft lying about selling 20 million WM phones in 2008 then?
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03-14-2009, 06:06 PM
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Editorial Contributor
Join Date: Jun 2007
Posts: 5,411
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ed Hansberry
I just don't count that [Symbian] as a serious smartphone platform since...many users ...never install...an app or sync... with anything.
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Do you think the majority of RIM users do? Install apps anyway? Just curious about your assessment. The vast majority of BB users I know, use it just like it was when their company gave (forced) it to them.
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03-14-2009, 09:53 PM
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Thinker
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 426
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I had a BB 8830 "given" to me for work over a year ago. It is great for email and texting. It is OK for viewing Excel and PDFs. The browser is not friendly. I've purchased a few themes/today and tried a few calendar programs, but none are loaded now. You can't customize the rascals or change fonts. I still carry my HP4155 for PIM, reading, editing, etc. and sync it to work. And, when I have wifi, I use it to browse.
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03-14-2009, 10:00 PM
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Contributing Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 8,228
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Stinger
How is Symbian fragmented? UIQ is dead. Symbian = S60 these days. Symbian is certainly no more fragmented than Windows Mobile.
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The native language of the Symbian OS is C++, although it is not a standard implementation. There are multiple platforms based upon Symbian OS that provide an SDK for application developers wishing to target a Symbian OS device � the main ones being UIQ and S60. Individual phone products, or families, often have SDKs or SDK extensions downloadable from the manufacturer's website too.
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Introduction of the Symbian Signed system in which application developers need to pay in order to use some of the more attractive smartphone features (as contrasted to platforms like Palm OS and Windows Mobile) is making it an increasingly unpopular platform for Open Source projects<SUP id=cite_ref-26 class=reference>[27]</SUP>, independent developers and small startups. This situation is worsened by the fragmentation of user interface systems (UIQ vs S60 vs MOAP)<SUP id=cite_ref-27 class=reference>[28]</SUP>, meaning that developers need to build and maintain multiple incompatible versions of their software<SUP id=cite_ref-28 class=reference>[29]</SUP> if they want to target multiple devices which use the same underlying Symbian OS version.
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I'd say that is substantially more fragmented than Windows Mobile. Unbelievable to me that there are SDKs for specific phones or phone families. WinMo basically has two flavors - touch and non-touch. You have to make sure your UI can handle different device resolutions, but the API is there to allow for that. The only real fragmentatation in WinMo phones is caused by OEMs like HTC that customize the UI enough that it can cause problems with some apps that also try to tie themselves into the UI.
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03-14-2009, 10:04 PM
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Contributing Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 8,228
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Quote:
Originally Posted by doogald
Was Microsoft lying about selling 20 million WM phones in 2008 then?
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Don't think so. These are handset sales and MS was talking about licenses. In a given year they won't match up. Plus, some licenes were sold to manufacturers that sell directly to some entities. Symbol for example - I doubt many of their numbers are included in Gartner's data.
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03-14-2009, 10:07 PM
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Contributing Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 8,228
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Sven
Do you think the majority of RIM users do? Install apps anyway? Just curious about your assessment. The vast majority of BB users I know, use it just like it was when their company gave (forced) it to them.
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Honestly don't know. RIM is trying to encourage it with their App store. Our company is mostly BB devices and some people do have third party apps installed. Purely anecdotal though.
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03-15-2009, 12:10 AM
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Oracle
Join Date: May 2003
Posts: 984
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ed Hansberry
Don't think so. These are handset sales and MS was talking about licenses. In a given year they won't match up. Plus, some licenes were sold to manufacturers that sell directly to some entities. Symbol for example - I doubt many of their numbers are included in Gartner's data.
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I was just going by what Steve Ballmer said at CES.
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And last, but certainly not least, our partners have sold more than 20 million Windows phones over the course of the last 12 months.
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And does Symbol even sell a phone? I thought that they sold just non-phone devices.
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03-15-2009, 01:58 AM
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Contributing Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 8,228
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Quote:
Originally Posted by doogald
I was just going by what Steve Ballmer said at CES.
And does Symbol even sell a phone? I thought that they sold just non-phone devices.
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Define partner. If HTC sells a phone to AT&T, but AT&T still has it in inventory, does that count, or does it only count if HTC sells it to a consumer?
I am just saying Gartner is focused on consumer/end user sales.
And i had forgotten, Symbol was purchased by MOT, and yes, they make enterprise industrial phones - http://www.motorola.com/Business/US-...bile+Computers
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