market

Triple-digit iPhone sales growth catapulted Apple up two spots to become the world's third largest mobile phone manufacturer.

iPhone sales increased 128 percent in the fourth quarter of 2011 over the same period in 2010, according to data released today by research firm IDC. The firm identified the iPhone 4S, which was introduced on October, as the primary reason the company leapt over LG and ZTE in the fourth quarter.

"The mobile phone market exhibited unusually low growth last quarter, which shows it is not immune to weaker macroeconomic conditions worldwide," Kevin Restivo, senior research analyst with … Read more

Make no mistake: Mark Zuckerberg doesn't want to go public.

It's no secret that Zuckerberg has tried to keep Facebook private as long as possible, believing--rightly or wrongly--that that's the best way to stay nimble and build the business. But at this point, Zuck's got little choice. Facebook has become too big, it has too many shareholders, and so it's on track to go public this spring, eight years after Zuckerberg started Facebook in his Harvard dorm room.

A couple of months ago, the 27-year-old Zuckerberg assembled his top management team to talk about the … Read more

Apple is out-shipping traditional PC vendors by a wide margin on the back of strong iPad sales, a marketing research firm has found.

In the fourth quarter, Apple became the leading worldwide client PC vendor by shipping more than 15 million iPads and 5 million Macs, representing 17 percent of the total 120 million client PCs shipped globally in the fourth quarter, according to Canalys.

Hewlett-Packard was a distant No. 2 with about 12.7 percent.

"We're going through the biggest shift the PC industry has seen in 20 years. It's very difficult to grow in the … Read more

As smartphone shipments continued to surge throughout 2011, Apple reclaimed its chief position as the No. 1 smartphone vendor in the fourth quarter, according to research firm Strategy Analytics.

Throughout various countries, using dozens of operators, the iPhone family overtook Samsung with 24 percent of the market share in the fourth quarter. During this time, Apple's global smartphone shipments grew by 128 percent and it shipped 37. million phones.

Over the year, all global smartphone shipments increased by 54 percent and in the fourth quarter reached a record number of 155 million phones shipped.

"While Apple took the … Read more

According to app store analytics researcher Distimo, developers who put their iPhone and iPad apps on sale in Apple's App Store see a significant jump in revenue, as do Android developers using the Android Market.

For the report, Distimo examined 100 of the top apps in Apple's App Store (for iPhone and iPad) as well as the top 100 for the Android Market. For apps in the iPhone and iPad divisions of Apple's App Store, the first day increase in revenue was 41 percent and 52 percent, respectively.

After 15 days, both the iPhone and the iPad … Read more

As CyanogenMod skates past 1 million active users, making it by far the most popular custom flavor of Android around, one of its main developers has asked the Android community if there's interest in creating an app store for Android modders and their fans.

Koushik Datta suggested a marketplace designed for apps, ROMs, and emulators that Google refuses to host and carriers refuse to allow. Not surprisingly, the answer he got was resoundingly positive.

Dutta, also known as Koush, said in a Google Plus post earlier this month that the time was coming for an app store that specialized in rooted Androids. … Read more

The IPO market may have regained its footing--sort of--but clearly not fast enough for some wanting to sell their private shares.

Trading on SecondMarket soared 55 percent in 2011 to a total of $558 million in transactions, as ex-employees, founders and others connected with hot startups cashed out shares. The company creates a marketplace for stock in private companies.

Demand, meanwhile, was huge, with those trying to buy private shares--measured by what SecondMarket calls "indications of interest"--offering more than $6 billion during the year.

SecondMarket says it's now completed more than $1 billion in private company … Read more

Leave it to Sony's marketing arm in Japan to rustle up yet another cryptic advertising campaign.

A video quietly emerged last week on Sony's YouTube channel labeled Dot Switch. It's a first-person view of someone holding what appears to be an Xperia Arco smartphone and wielding it as a remote control. The Arco is the Japanese version of the Xperia Arc, and perhaps it's relevant to note that the Arco also has an infrared (IR) port.

What's got everyone buzzing about the viral ad is that the person holding the device in the vid is controlling a random assortment of products, such as a gramophone, a TV, and confetti machines. What a strange combination!

The end of the video is marked by yet another tap on the smartphone's screen toward a robot arm that reveals a small shiny black box. … Read more

Android shot past Apple's iOS in market share last month, at least according to the number of ad impressions seen by ad network Chitika.

Chitika found that iOS took the lead in November with 51.7 percent of traffic seen on its ad network, followed by Google with 46.1 percent. But as the holiday season came into full bloom in December, Android grabbed the lead with a 51.6 percent share, leaving iOS in second place with 46.5 percent.

Chitika noted that Android hit holiday buyers with a variety of mobile devices. Google's Android chief Andy … Read more