Smart phones overtake client PCs in 2011

Canalys released a new summary looking at the sales of smart phones and computers. The study shows a drop in netbook, notebooks and desktops as a direct result of interest in tablets. All of this information can take a little while to sort through but the bottom line is that the sales of other products also continue to rise. In other words, people are buying smart phones but also buying tablets, laptops, desktops, etc. Their study shows that vendors shipped 488 million smart phones and 415 million PC’s.

“In 2011 we saw a fall in demand for netbooks, and slowing demand for notebooks and desktops as a direct result of rising interest in pads,” said Chris Jones, Canalys VP and Principal Analyst. “But pads have had negligible impact on smart phone volumes and markets across the globe have seen persistent and substantial growth through 2011. Smart phone shipments overtaking those of client PCs should be seen as a significant milestone. In the space of a few years, smart phones have grown from being a niche product segment at the high-end of the mobile phone market to becoming a truly mass-market proposition. The greater availability of smart phones at lower price points has helped tremendously, but there has been a driving trend of increasing consumer appetite for Internet browsing, content consumption and engaging with apps and services on mobile devices.”

Canalys expects to see smart phone growth in 2012. The competition continues to heats up in the Android market (48.8%) and the iPhone (19.1%) 5 is expected to release soon so we also can assume this to be true. Apple’s recent sales report shows that they sold 37 million iPhones last year alone with only the update 4s model, not the iPhone 5.

Not to be left out, Samsung also shipped 35.3 million smart phones, Nokia shipped 19.6 million and then you have all the other brands plus Windows Phone and Blackberry still trying to hang in there.