Hasta La Gadget!

BlackBerry fans can break out the bubbly. Growing demand for its phones has helped Research In Motion move into the top five mobile phone companies worldwide in sales during the first quarter, says research firm IDC.

RIM replaced Motorola in the Top 5 chart and tied with Sony Ericsson for the No. 4 position. RIM shipped 10.6 million phones in the first quarter, while Motorola, which had been a fixture in the top-five ranking since 2004, shipped 8.5 million phones.

“This is also the first time a vendor has dropped out of the top five since the second quarter of 2005, when Sony Ericsson grabbed the number five spot from BenQ Siemens,” says Kevin Restivo, senior research analyst with IDC’s Worldwide Mobile Phone Tracker.

Apple doesn’t feature in the Top 5 chart because the company shipped 8.75 million phones worldwide in the first quarter, says IDC. Next week, IDC will release data on the top five mobile phone makers in the United States.

However, Apple has taken the top spot among U.S. phone makers, a rather small group that includes Motorola, Apple, Palm and a handful of minor players.

The worldwide rankings take into account both smartphones and feature phones. Though feature phones (cheaper, simpler devices) are still a big percentage of phones sold worldwide, low-cost smartphones are picking up in sales, says IDC.

Nokia, whose devices don’t get much love in the United States, held on to its No. 1 position worldwide, shipping 107.8 million phones in the first quarter of the year. That’s up 16 percent from the same quarter year before.

Samsung ranked second with 64.3 million phones sold, and LG shipped 27.1 million phones to bag the third place. RIM, which ranks fourth, sold nearly 2 million more phones than Motorola, says IDC.

“Key to its success in the first quarter was the popularity of its BlackBerry Curve 8520 and BlackBerry Bold 9700 across multiple markets, as well as its global prepaid offerings,” says IDC. “Strong consumer adoption, particularly among text-crazy teens, has also fueled demand for BlackBerry devices.”

Here’s a look at the top five companies worldwide by their market share:

See Also:

• BlackBerry Maker Overhauls Phone Operating System
• Research In Motion Woos BlackBerry Developers
• Google Fires at Apple, Integrates Flash Into Chrome Browser
• Android Devices Crave Google’s Attention
• Android Fragmentation Declines, But Older Versions Still Rule

Charts data supplied by IDC

It’s hardly been a secret that Windows 7 was on track to become Microsoft’s fastest-selling operating system, but the company has just now finally made that designation official, and also revealed that the OS has crossed the magical 100 million licenses sold mark in the process. In other words, that translates to Windows 7 being installed on one in ten of the world’s PCs just six months after it launched, which is pretty darn impressive any way you slice it — or punch it, as the case may be.

Windows 7 hits 100 million licenses mark, becomes Microsoft’s fastest-selling OS originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 27 Apr 2010 17:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink ZDNet  |  Silicon.com  | Email this | Comments

Apple might not be too happy about having a fourth-gen iPhone prototype get stolen, but there’s nothing like cold, hard cash to turn a frown upside-down — and the company certainly made plenty of it in the second quarter of 2010, posting a $3.07b profit on $13.5b in revenue. That’s the Apple’s best non-holiday quarter ever — profits were up 90 percent while revenue was up 49 percent — and yet another record quarter for Steve and the gang. Mac sales were up 33 percent from a year ago with 2.94m units sold, iPhone sales were up 131 percent with 8.75m units sold, and iPod sales were down one point with 10.89m units sold. We’re just about to jump on the analyst conference call, we’ll let you know if we hear anything good — we wonder what people might be asking about?

Update: Oh, why not — let’s liveblog this thing. Follow along after the break at 5PM ET.

Continue reading Apple has another record quarter, posts $3.07b profit

Apple has another record quarter, posts $3.07b profit originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 20 Apr 2010 16:48:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  Apple  | Email this | Comments

We heard some pretty ridiculous estimates over the weekend, but these figures are straight out of Cupertino’s mouth: over 300,000 iPads were sold on April 3rd. Specifically, that many were moved in the US as of midnight (PT, we’re assuming) on Saturday, though this does include deliveries of pre-ordered units to customers, deliveries to channel partners (such as Best Buy) and sales at Apple Retail Stores. We should point out, though, that just because Best Buy purchased a bundle of ’em doesn’t mean that end users have (yet), but still, this is a pretty impressive feat for something that not everyone was convinced that they “needed” in January. If you’ll recall, Apple only sold 270,000 iPhones during its first 30 hours on the market, yet it moved over a million iPhone 3GS units during that handset’s opening weekend. In related news, iPad users also downloaded over a million apps and over 250,000 ebooks from the iBookstore during launch day, with Steve Jobs himself noting that “iPad users, on average, downloaded more than three apps and close to one book within hours of unpacking their new iPad.” Now, let’s see if these guys can keep pace through the first full week.

[Thanks, Tal]

Apple sells over 300,000 iPad tablets on US launch day originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 05 Apr 2010 08:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  Apple  | Email this | Comments

UK VHS sales more than double in 2009, Bill Cosby enjoys the attention originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 24 Mar 2010 09:53:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Tech Digest  |  BBC  | Email this | Comments