May 27
Apple has long been the little guy in the Mac vs. PC debate, but that’s no longer the case.
As of trading near the end of the day on Wednesday, Apple has passed Microsoft in terms of market capitalization, with a value of roughly $222 billion–about $3 billion ahead of Microsoft. Apple had been flirting with the milestone for days and had already passed Microsoft by another measure–a valuation known as enterprise value, which adds in debt and other factors.
The fact that Apple, not Microsoft, is the more valuable franchise represents a remarkable turn of events in the history of computing.
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Tagged with: apple • MAC • Microsoft • Office • PC • PC debate • Windows
Feb 08
Apple’s continued strength in smartphone sales cemented its position as the third-largest vendor in the fourth quarter of 2009, an IDC report concluded Thursday evening.
Apple reported selling 8.7 million iPhones for the fourth quarter, versus 20.8 million for Nokia and 10.7 million for Research in Motion, which represented the top three vendors. But Apple’s growth far outpaced all others, with a unit sales increase of 97.7 percent.
According to IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, vendors shipped a total of 54.5 million units in the fourth quarter of 2009, up 39.0 percent from the same quarter a year ago. For the full year, vendors shipped a total of 174.2 million units in 2009, up 15.1 percent from the 151.4 million units in 2008.
IDC said it predicts that phone sales will reach an all-time high this year.
“2009 was the coming-out party for Google’s Android and Palm’s webOS as both operating systems revealed new ways to surround the users with increased functionality,” says Kevin Restivo, senior research analyst with IDC’s Mobile Phone Tracker, in a statement. “More advances are in store for 2010 as Symbian and Windows are expected to unveil new versions of their respective operating systems. These and other operating systems will compete with attention-grabbing intuitiveness and seamlessness, a thriving mobile application library, and a compelling user experience that tightly holds on to the user. In the end, users will benefit from not only greater usability, but greater personalization and customization as well.”
IDC noted that RIM benefited from deals that essentially provided free Curve and Pearl models for free with a two-year contract.
Quote from www.pcmag.com
Tagged with: apple • Google • Nokia • smartphone • Windows
