IDC: Connected device shipments cross 1 billion in 2012, Samsung leads the pack from Apple
Who said that Apple is going down? The blogosphere has been buzzing about Apple’s recent slide but this should surely make the Apple lovers jump up in joy. Connected devices consists of Smartphone, Tablet, Desktop PC and Notebook PC. When combined sales of these devices is taken into account, 2012 has seen 29.1% of increase in sales YoY with a total of 1,201.1 million shipments (1.2 billion). Even though Samsung leads in terms of sales with 21.2% of share, Apple has closed the gap in a big way this time around with 20.4% of share. When it comes to revenue from connected device, Apple has gobbled up nearly a third of revenues (30.7%) while Samsung can only manage 20.4% of revenue pie.
“In emerging markets, consumer spending typically starts with mobile phones and, in many cases, moves to tablets before PCs,” said Megha Saini, Research Analyst for IDC’s Worldwide Smart Connected Device Tracker. “The pressure on the PC market is significantly increasing and we can see longer replacement cycles coming into effect very soon and that, too, will put downward pressure on PC sales.”
While Smartphones took 60.1% of connected devices share, Desktop PCs could only manage 12.4% of market and it is only a matter of time before tablet PCs (10.7% of share) overtake Desktop PCs in terms of market share proving the rapid decline of desktop PCs. The tablet at the top shows the market share in the year 2012 and IDC’s forecast for 2017 (when they expect the sales to double on 2012 numbers).
