Research firm IDC today released its estimates on worldwide mobile phone sales for the third quarter of 2013, once again showing Apple's iPhone growth trailing that of the overall smartphone market. Apple's 33.8 million iPhone shipments were up 25.7% year-over-year, compared to 38.8% growth for the entire market. Market leader Samsung grew at slightly higher than the industry average, and Apple with its 13.1% share was able to hold onto the second-place ranking ahead of Huawei, Lenovo, and LG, all of which showed strong growth but remained at under 5% market share.
Worldwide Smartphone Shipments in 3Q13 in Millions of Units (Source: IDC)
Apple's total volumes speak to the early success of the iPhones 5S and 5C, and the softening demand of older devices prior to the new models launching. The iPhone 5S lived up to the hype of the gold case and the fingerprint sensor, and the iPhone 5C with an array of colors. At the same time, limited usability on the fingerprint sensor and higher-than-expected pricing on the iPhone 5C drew mixed reactions. Still, this did not prevent Apple from enjoying a record 9 million units shipped in their debut.
As in previous quarters, Apple's performance in the overall mobile market benefited from the decline of the featurephone, with the company's 25.7% year-over-year growth easily topping the market's overall 5.7% growth and allowing Apple to remain firmly in third place behind Samsung and Nokia. According to IDC, smartphones accounted for 55% of total mobile phone shipments during the quarter, up from 42% in the third quarter of 2012.
Worldwide Mobile Phone Shipments in 3Q13 in Millions of Units (Source: IDC)
Apple released its financial results for the third calendar quarter (fourth fiscal quarter) yesterday, revealing that the iPhone continues to account for majority of the company's revenue at 52 percent.
Wednesday February 19, 2025 8:02 am PST by Joe Rossignol
Apple today introduced the iPhone 16e, its newest entry-level smartphone. The device succeeds the third-generation iPhone SE, which has now been discontinued.
The iPhone 16e features a larger 6.1-inch OLED display, up from a 4.7-inch LCD on the iPhone SE. The display has a notch for Face ID, and this means that Apple no longer sells any iPhones with a Touch ID fingerprint button, marking the ...
Tuesday February 18, 2025 12:02 pm PST by Joe Rossignol
Over the years, Apple has switched from an aluminum frame to a stainless steel frame to a titanium frame for its highest-end iPhones. And now, it has been rumored that Apple will go back to using aluminum for three out of four iPhone 17 models.
In an investor note with research firm GF Securities, obtained by MacRumors this week, Apple supply chain analyst Jeff Pu said the iPhone 17, iPhone...
Thursday February 20, 2025 5:06 am PST by Tim Hardwick
Now that Apple has announced its new more affordable iPhone 16e, our thoughts turn to what else we are expecting from the company this spring.
There are three product categories that we are definitely expecting to get upgraded before spring has ended. Keep reading to learn what they are. If we're lucky, Apple might make a surprise announcement about a completely new product category.
M4...
Wednesday February 19, 2025 11:38 am PST by Juli Clover
Following the launch of the iPhone 16e, Apple updated its iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia pages to give a narrower timeline on when the next updates are set to launch.
All three pages now state that new Apple Intelligence features and languages will launch in early April, an update from the more broader April timeframe that Apple provided before. The next major point updates will be iOS ...
Friday February 21, 2025 1:08 pm PST by Juli Clover
Apple finally released the first beta of iOS 18.4 to developers for testing purposes, and while the beta is lacking some of the Apple Intelligence features we were hoping for, there are some notable new additions.
Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos.
Priority Notifications - Apple Intelligence
There is a new Priority Notifications feature that can show you your most...
Thursday February 13, 2025 8:07 am PST by Joe Rossignol
In a social media post today, Apple CEO Tim Cook teased an upcoming "launch" of some kind scheduled for Wednesday, February 19.
"Get ready to meet the newest member of the family," he said, with an #AppleLaunch hashtag.
The post includes a short video with an animated Apple logo inside a circle.
Cook did not provide an exact time for the launch, or share any other specific details, so...
Friday February 21, 2025 8:01 am PST by Joe Rossignol
Apple has confirmed that its custom-designed C1 modem in the iPhone 16e has nothing to do with the device's lack of MagSafe support, according to Macworld.
Following the launch of the iPhone 16e, there was some speculation online about how MagSafe magnets might have interfered with the C1 modem's cellular connectivity performance, and this was considered to be a potential reason for the...
Apple today announced its first custom cellular modem with the name "C1," debuting in the all-new iPhone 16e.
The new modem contributes to the iPhone 16e's power efficiency, giving it the longest battery life of any iPhone with a 6.1-inch display, such as the iPhone 15 and iPhone 16.
Expanding the benefits of Apple silicon, C1 is the first modem designed by Apple and the most...
Spot on. Who the hell wants to spends a lot, sell a lot and make a thin profit. :D
Look at those smartphone numbers again - Samsung are outselling Apple almost 3-to-1.
That means Samsung can afford to have 1/3 of the margin Apple has and make the same massive profits.
Let's ignore business for a moment; wouldn't humanity benefit immensely from more people having access to better technology?
That was Apple's original vision. Not to make massive profits, but to make great products that change the world and to get those products in to the hands of as many people as possible.
Today, the company executing that vision is Samsung. Apple seems to be fixated on profit, despite being extremely financially secure already.
Spot on. Who the hell wants to spends a lot, sell a lot and make a thin profit. :D
Customers do. Customers want high end specs smartphone for low price (thin profit for manufacturer).
For example, this high end specs smartphone is selling for $327 unlocked/off-contract in China.
Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 quad-core 2.3GHz CPU Sharp/LG 5″ 1080P IPS display with ultra-sensitive touch 2GB LPDDR3 RAM 16GB eMMC4.5 flash memory SONY 13 MP Exmor RS CMOS back camera 2MP BSI front camera NFC & 2.4/5G WiFi support 3050 mAh battery
And it's outselling the Iphone in China. It's easy to compete when it's half the price of the iPhone while the specs are comparable (if not better).
Aren't profits what matter most? Apple is targeting the middle to high end which is growing. Android can have the bottom end which is also growing but is less profitable.
NO
My passion has been to build an enduring company where people were motivated to make great products. The products, not the profits, were the motivation. Sculley flipped these priorities to where the goal was to make money. It's a subtle difference, but it ends up meaning everything.
What ruined Apple was not growth They got very greedy Instead of following the original trajectory of the original vision, which was to make the thing an appliance and get this out there to as many people as possible they went for profits. They made outlandish profits for about four years. What this cost them was their future. What they should have been doing is making rational profits and going for market share.
Not saying Samsung isn't selling smart phones by the boatload. Just that it's hard to know how far ahead they are when Apple gives us "sales" and Samsung gives us "shipments."
Apple gives shipments also.
And really, after 4 years still using the same old boring and meaningless "shipped vs sold" argument.
What's the point of getting the device to the hands of people if the device itself sucks? The way to get 3x the sales of iPhones, android phone manufacturers are releasing crappy phones that are loaded with bloatware and are hard to use.
If they are all that crappy and suck, how come they year after year outsell Apple? How can they have a better growth than Apple? Wouldn't people see through them selling useless phones year after year. Wouldn't they buy an iPhone the next time in that case? Have you actually used a modern Android phone (with objective eyes)? I believe it's amazing how much bang you get for your bucks when it comes to some Android phones compared to the 5C for example.
I certainly hope that the guys at Apple don't have the same opinion, but instead realize that there are a lot of really good Android phones out there. They won't just go away by themselves due to selling cheap crap that people will stop buying. They are a real threat.
I'm not saying Apple is doomed, but it's old and incorrect to brush off the Android phones as cheap crap.
