The rise of the smartphone has been meteoric in recent times and for the first time ever smartphones have outsold the total PC market in 2011. as shown by data reported by Canalys.
Initially this might not seem that impressive but when the PC market includes tablets, desktops, laptops as well as net-books, you see just how successful they have been in the last year.
The total smartphone sales in 2011 were 487.7 million units, which is a massive 63 per cent increase on the previous year. Meanwhile, the PC market saw an annual growth of 15 per cent (414.6 million units) driven mainly by tablet sales which increased 274 per cent on the previous year.
With smartphones getting more and more advanced all the time could we be seeing the end of the desktop and laptop in favour of the smartphone and the tablet ?
The report also showed that Apple achieved record sales in the last quarter of 2011 by selling 37 million iPhones and sold the most smartphones of any manufacturer in the year as a whole (93.1 million).
Samsung came in second place after an amazing year which saw them selling 91.9 million smartphones, up from just 24.9 million in the previous year. Nokia's dropped to third place and only sold 77.3 million smartphones which is disappointing for them, but the last quarter of 2011 was more positive thanks to a 17 per increase on the previous quarter.
The next year should see smartphones and tablets become even more dominant and 3G expects the line between the two devices to blur even further.
