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.
Despite being more than two years old, Apple's AirPods Pro 2 still dominate the premium wireless‑earbud space, thanks to a potent mix of top‑tier audio, class‑leading noise cancellation, and Apple's habit of delivering major new features through software updates. With AirPods Pro 3 widely expected to arrive in 2025, prospective buyers now face a familiar dilemma: snap up the proven...
Tuesday April 22, 2025 10:22 am PDT by Juli Clover
Apple plans to release an all-new super thin iPhone this year, debuting it alongside the iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Pro, and iPhone 17 Pro Max. We've seen pictures of dummy models, cases, and renders with the design, but Lewis Hilsenteger of Unbox Therapy today showed off newer dummy models that give us a better idea of just how thin the "iPhone 17 Air" will be.
The iPhone 17 Air is expected to be ...
Thursday April 24, 2025 2:14 am PDT by Tim Hardwick
If you missed the video showing dummy models of Apple's all-new super thin iPhone 17 Air that's expected later this year, Sonny Dickson this morning shared some further images of the device in close alignment with the other dummy models in the iPhone 17 lineup, indicating just how thin it is likely to be in comparison.
The iPhone 17 Air is expected to be around 5.5mm thick – with a thicker ...
Tuesday April 22, 2025 5:01 am PDT by Tim Hardwick
A developer has demonstrated Windows 11 ARM running on an M2 iPad Air using emulation, which has become much easier since the EU's Digital Markets Act (DMA) regulations came into effect.
As spotted by Windows Latest, NTDev shared an instance of the emulation on social media and posted a video on YouTube (embedded below) demonstrating it in action. The achievement relies on new EU regulatory...
Thursday April 17, 2025 4:12 am PDT by Tim Hardwick
Apple's iPhone development roadmap runs several years into the future and the company is continually working with suppliers on several successive iPhone models simultaneously, which is why we often get rumored features months ahead of launch. The iPhone 17 series is no different, and we already have a good idea of what to expect from Apple's 2025 smartphone lineup.
If you skipped the iPhone...
Apple seeded the third beta of iOS 18.5 to developers today, and so far the software update includes only a few minor changes.
The changes are in the Mail and Settings apps.
In the Mail app, you can now easily turn off contact photos directly within the app, by tapping on the circle with three dots in the top-right corner.
In the Settings app, AppleCare+ coverage information is more...
Wednesday April 23, 2025 8:31 am PDT by Joe Rossignol
While the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are not expected to launch until September, there are already plenty of rumors about the devices.
Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models as of April 2025:
Aluminum frame: iPhone 17 Pro models are rumored to have an aluminum frame, whereas the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro models have a titanium frame, and the iPhone ...
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.
