Now isn’t this curious news? According to the IDC, a market research and analysis firm, smartphone manufacturers pushed out 100.9 million units during the final quarter of 2010. Compare to this number of PCs sold during that same quarter: 92.1 million. For the first time ever, smartphones outsold traditional computers. Think about that for a second. Pretty crazy, huh? Alarming, no. With innovators like Apple, RIM, and HTC churning out mobile devices left and right, we all knew this day (erm, quarter) would come when the inevitable would strike. And don’t forget–phones are steadily evolving into pocketable computers now aren’t they?
The IDC provides us with more fun facts, if you’re interested. Smartphones shipped during Q4 2010 were up 87.2 percent from the 53.9 million smartphones shipped during the Q4 2009. They say Google’s mobile OS Android “continues to gain by leaps and bounds” and they call Nokia’s Symbian the market leader, interestingly enough. They calculate the top 5 (Q4 2010) smartphone vendors to be Nokia, Apple, RIM, Samsung, and HTC. On the PC front, they name HP, Dell, Toshiba, Acer, and Apple to be the top 5 (Q4 2010) PC vendors. Computer shipments rose by a meager 2.7 percent compared to the year-ago quarter. They say Apple’s iPad managed to stifle demand and competition and thusly constrain PC shipments.