By: Michelle Maisto, eWeek
Smartphone sales surged past PC totals—even with the iPad helping numbers—for the first time ever during the fourth quarter, according to Canalys. Smartphone sales surpassed those of PCs for the first time ever, during the fourth quarter of 2011, according to research firm Canalys. What’s more, smartphones also outsold PCs—even with the inclusion of tablets, such as the Apple iPad, into the mix. In all, vendors shipped 158.5 million smartphones during the quarter, up 57 percent from 101.2 million units during the same quarter a year ago, compared with 120.2 million PCs. Smartphones led for the full year 2011, as well, on shipments of 487.7 million units to 414.6 million PCs. Of those PC units, 63.2 million were tablets. “Smartphone shipments overtaking those of client PCs should be seen as a significant milestone,” Canalys analyst Chris Jones said in a statement. “In the space of a few years, smartphones have grown from being a niche product segment at the high-end of the mobile phone market to becoming a truly mass-market proposition.”
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