Smartphone sales showed no signs of slowing down in Q2 2014. According to market research firm IDC, global shipments hit a new single quarter record with 295.3 million units leaving factories over the quarter. Not only did shipments grow 2.6% over Q1, they also grew 23.1% over the same quarter a year ago. “A record second quarter proves that the […]
Market analysis
Phablet shipments to top 1.9 billion in 2019
We first used the term “phablet” back in early 2012. Defined by Business Insider as a smartphone with a display measuring between 5- and 7-inches, the term was as odd as seeing these large devices back then. Skip forward to 2014 and phablets have not only become mainstream but account for a growing portion of the smartphone market. More than […]
49.3 million tablets shipped in Q2 2014
Tablet shipments hit 49.3 units in Q2 2014. While this represents an 11% increase over the same quarter a year ago, it is also a 1.5% sequential drop. Market research firm IDC expects that the tablet market will continue to grow but certainly not at the pace seen in past quarters. Factors impacting that growth include consumer appetite for larger-screened […]
Smartphone charging to generate same greenhouse gas emissions as 1 million cars by 2019
There is a dark side (or more you could even argue) to the mobile devices that have made our lives easier. A report by Juniper Research has concluded that producing the growing number of smartphone, tablets and other mobile devices we use will generate over 115 million tons of greenhouse gases (GHGs) per year by 2019, up 30 percent from […]
Acer leads Chromebook market in Q2 2014
It may appear that Chromebooks are flying under the radar but they continue to make steady inroads as a viable alternative to Mac OS and Windows-powered notebooks. According to Taiwan market research firm TrendForce, Chromebook shipments topped 1.8 million units in Q2 2014. Perhaps more significant is that Acer made significant gains during the quarter and surpassed Samsung to take […]
Samsung and Pebble dominate U.S. smartwatch sales
Given Samsung’s dominance of the nascent global smartmwatch market, it should come as no surprise that it dominates the U.S. market as well. Nearly half a million smartwatches have been sold in the U.S. since October 2013 with Samsung and Pebble the clear U.S. smartwatch sales leaders according to market research firm NPD. Revenues for the U.S. smartwatch market hit US$96 […]
Fitbit dominates global wearable band shipments in Q1 2014
Samsung may have dominated the smartwatch market in Q1 2014 but if you take a wider look at the global wearable band market, a different leader emerges. According to Canalys, a total of 2.7 million wearable bands, comprised of both basic and smart bands (the latter includes smartwatches), shipped worldwide in Q1 2014. Fitbit accounted for nearly 50% of those global […]
Samsung dominates nascent smartwatch market
Confirming wide interest in wearables, the global smartwatch market is growing quickly. Shipments in Q1 2014 grew 250% year over year according to market research firm Strategy Analytics. In all, some 700,000 smartwatches were shipped during the quarter. Samsung, which dominates the smartphone market, shipped about 500,000 of those, giving it a 71% market share. In comparison, it shipped 1 […]