5 Biggest Losers as Smartphone Sales Surpass PCs: Mobile Technology News «
Phones are quickly becoming the true personal computers, which is why manufacturers of PCs and Macs need to change. PC’s and macs must manage the transition from “Personal” to “Home” computer server , and they’ve got to do that quickly or their home functions will be replaced by TV’s game boxes and other home appliances at the same time that their personal uses are supplanted by smart phones.
Just how big is the market for pocketable computers — a market the computer industry has had a three-decade head start on? I haven’t yet seen fourth quarter smartphone sales estimates, so we can’t make a direct comparison, but Gartner’s third quarter numbers from last year show that 80.5 million smartphones were sold. That’s nearly equal to the 88.3 million computers shipped in the third quarter, just about 10 percent higher than that of smartphones.
Another startling datapoint to illustrate the challenge faced by PC makers: The up-and-coming Taiwanese company, HTC, expects to sell 60 million smartphones in 2011, which alone would rival the entire 62.7 million computers Gartner says HP sold in 2010. And of course, one can point to nearly 40 million iPhones sold by Apple in its 2010 fiscal year, or roughly three times the 13.6 million Mac computers sold during by Apple in the same period, showing that Apple has a clearer understanding that the future is mobile. Apple has devoted much effort towards iOS devices and is even bringing iOS concepts to its upcoming desktop upgrade called OS X Lion.