It may seem like everyone around you owns a smartphone but that’s hardly the case on a global scale. Global smartphone penetration is just now nearing 10%, according to new research published by TomiAhonen Consulting. The firm compiled information from Netsize Guide, Informa, Google and Ipsos to grab a snapshot of smartphone penetration in 42 major countries covering 72% of global mobile phone subscriptions. Singapore has the largest recorded feature phone to smartphone migration rate (54%) followed by...

A recent report from Net Applications suggests that Apple’s iOS and Mac OS X operating systems both achieved a record high global market shares during the month of September. iOS had a global market share of 54.65% for the month, up from the 53.04% grip it had on the market in August. iOS is trailed by Java ME with an 18.52% market share, Android (16.25%)  Symbian (6.12%) and BlackBerry (3.29%). Mac OS X reached a record high 6.45% share of the operating system market during September, up from 6.03% in...

Amazon’s $199 tablet is expected by many to be a smash hit when it begins shipping to customers on November 15th, but inexperience with global distribution could prove to be a huge barrier for the fledgling tablet vendor. DigiTimes cited anonymous industry sources on Thursday in reporting that sales of Amazon’s Kindle Fire tablet may “not be significant” outside the U.S., the tablet’s initial launch market, and Europe due to the retail giant’s lack of experience with channe...

U.S. citizens will use the mobile networks to access the Internet more than wireline networks by 2015 according to IDC’s Worldwide New Media Market Model, 1H11 report which was released on Monday. Smartphone and tablet sales are expected to be the driving catalyst for the growth of mobile Internet use, which IDC predicts will increase 16.6% between 2010 and 2015. Internet usage in Western Europe and Japan is expected to follow a similar trend. IDC suggested the total number of worldwide Internet users w...

Verizon Wireless announced on Tuesday that it will offer the BlackBerry Torch 9850 on September 8th for $199.99 with a new two-year contract. The Torch 9850 offers a full 3.7-inch touchscreen display with an 800 x 480-pixel resolution, a 1.2GHz processor, support for global roaming in more than 200 countries, a 5-megapixel camera capable of recording 720p HD video and 16GB of storage. The Torch 9850 was first unveiled during a RIM event in Toronto on August 3rd where we published hands-on impressions of the p...

Android-powered tablets have taken 20% of the global tablet market from Apple’s iPad over the past 12 months according to new data from ABI Research. While Android tablets have collectively managed to make a sizable dent in the iPad’s global market share, ABI says no single tablet vendor has managed to “mount a significant challenge” against the iPad at this point. “Many vendors have introduced media tablets, but none are separating themselves from the pack to pose a serious thr...

Gartner on Thursday issued its global mobile phone sales data for the second quarter, which shows that the industry grew 16.5% from the same quarter last year, to 428.7 million units. Smartphone sales jumped 74% year-on-year, with 107.7 million smartphones having been sold to end users around the world. “Smartphone sales continued to rise at the expense of feature phones,” said Roberta Cozza, principal research analyst at Gartner, in a statement. “Consumers in mature markets are choosing ent...

Apple was once again reaffirmed as the world’s No. 1 smartphone vendor on Thursday as market research firm IDC released its data for the June quarter. Smartphone shipments in the second quarter of this year totaled 106.6 million according to IDC, up from 64.4 million in the same quarter last year. Of that total, Apple owned 19.1% with 20.34 million smartphones shipped, making it the top vendor by volume and by profit in the quarter. “Apple’s success can be directly attributed to its distribution...

The launch of Apple’s next-generation iPhone will propel global iPhone sales to 30 million units in the calendar fourth quarter of this year, BTIG Research analyst Walter Piecyk wrote on Wednesday. BTIG had previously estimated that Apple would sell 21.5 million iPhone handsets in the fourth quarter, but in light of Apple having recently reporting sales of 20.34 million units in the fiscal third quarter, the firm’s previous estimate is almost certainly low. Piecyk also believes Apple may sell more...

While Apple owns the largest share of handset shipments and profits among the world’s top smartphone vendors, Android is still the No. 1 smartphone operating system on the planet by a wide margin. Market research firm Canalys on Monday released its second-quarter smartphone figures, reaffirming impressive growth across the global smartphone industry. The firm says the worldwide smartphone market grew 73% year-over-year to more than 107.7 million units shipped last quarter, and Android lead the market in...

BGR reported last week that Apple had passed Nokia in the second quarter of 2011 to become the world’s top smartphone vendor by volume. The Cupertino-based company had already been No. 1 in the world by profits for quite some time. On Friday, market analysis firm Strategy Analytics released its second-quarter smartphone shipment figures and reaffirmed Apple’s new position atop the market. Apple shipped 20.3 million smartphones last quarter, up more than 140% from the 8.4 million iPhones it shipped...

More than 420 million smartphones will be sold around the world in 2011, accounting for 28% of total cell phone sales according to market research firm IMS Research. The firm sees the recent surge of more affordable smartphones as playing a major role in the continued growth of the market, and IMS analysts estimate that global smartphone sales will reach 1 billion devices by 2016 thanks to entry-level smart handsets. In recent months however, IMS’ data shows that Apple has made some of the largest gain...

Microsoft has yet to launch its tablet-optimized operating system and yet slates running various versions of the Windows operating system still managed to outsell Research In Motion’s BlackBerry PlayBook last quarter. According to market research firm Strategy Analytics’ latest report, Windows-powered media tablets owned 4.6% of the global market in the second quarter of 2011. In the same period, RIM’s PlayBook made up just 3.3% of the market. The firm also shows that competition may finally...

Google’s Android activations aren’t slowing down anytime soon. The search giant announced in its second-quarter earnings report yesterday that there are now 550,000 Android smartphones activated each day. That’s a massive figure, and it’s up from June when Google’s Andy Rubin revealed that his company was activating a half a million devices daily. Rubin also noted in June that activations were growing at a rate of 4.4% week over week. If that growth isn’t stunning enough, ...