Estimate: Apple to lead smartphones in 2011 at 86.4m iPhones
updated 08:00 am EDT, Tue September 6, 2011
Analysis puts Apple over Nokia in 2011 smartphones
Apple should be the top-selling smartphone manufacturer for 2011, according to estimates on Tuesday. The research wing for Digitimes determined that Apple's ouster of Nokia would hold for the rest of the year and put the iPhone on top of the smartphone space, at 86.4 million units. Nokia's struggles with Symbian and wait for Windows Phone would see its shipments drop by a quarter from a year ago down to 74.4 million, giving Apple a comfortable lead.
Individual Android smartphone makers were growing quickly but wouldn't topple Apple this year. Samsung wouldn't quite catch up to Nokia but, through phones like the Galaxy S II, was nearly tripling its shipments to 67 million. HTC will have doubled its shipments to 49.7 million, and even struggling LG could more than triple its share now that it has high-end Android smartphones.
RIM should grow just quickly enough to stay ahead of HTC at 55.7 million BlackBerrys, according to the estimates.
Apple no longer has the OS platform lead, but the estimate if accurate would see Apple have the largest smartphone platform after just four years, dislodging Nokia after many had thought the Finnish company's size would keep it in the lead. Samsung's rapid increase is also notable as the company has shifted quickly from its past overdependence on basic phones and Windows Mobile to pass some of the biggest names in phones of the past, including RIM, Motorola, and Sony Ericsson.
