Number of people with smartphones up 75 per cent in a year.

by Clare Conway

Facebook has revealed that 400 million users regularly access the social networking site from their smartphones. The stats were revealed in January of this year and mark an explosive trend for online interaction on the go.

thanks to louisvolant on Flickr

The huge numbers of people using the internet on their mobiles has perhaps been facilitated by an enormous increase in the global sale of smartphones.

According to figures by the International Data Corporation (IDC) published on Global Mobile Statistics, the number of smartphone handset shipments has risen by nearly 75 per cent from 2009 to 2010, and smartphones now account for over a fifth of all mobile phone sales. “Total shipments in 2010 were 302.6 million units up 74.4 percent from 2009,” Gobal Mobile Statistics reported.

For a complete table of global sales for handsets, with a breakdown of smartphone manufacturers, visit Global Mobile Statistics.

Smartphones outsell PCs

by Daniel Masoliver

Smartphones have outsold PCs for the first time ever, according to new research published by market analysts IDC.

Worldwide sales of smartphones in the fourth quarter of 2010 were up by over 87% compared to the same period the year before, from 53.9 million in 2009 to 100.9 million in 2010. By contrast, PC sales were up by only 3% in the final quarter of 2010, to 92.1 million.

So what does this mean? Are people abandoning their computers?  The short answer is no.

Smartphones outselling PCs can be put down to two key factors. Firstly, the vast majority of consumers who have bought a smartphone already own a PC. The phones are the newer technology, so it makes sense for their sales to be rising at a much quicker rate. It’s  important to note that PC sales are still rising, just not as fast as their mobile counterparts.

Secondly, people replace their phones on an almost annual basis. They can afford to do this because even top-end handsets are being given away for free with new contracts. PCs, on the other hand, are seen as long-term purchases, and are priced accordingly.

So it’s probably not time to have your computer sent to the glue factory just yet. But these figures are further proof that smartphones are increasingly becoming a vital part of how people communicate. PCs may not be going anywhere, but mobile tech is catching up.

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