Researchers at IDC have had their ears to the ground keeping tabs on shipments for specific types of devices, and now they've painted a bigger picture of the hardware battlefield in 2012. "Smart connected devices" -- a category which includes desktops, laptops, tablets and smartphones -- saw a total of 367.7 million units shipped in Q4 2012, up 28.3 percent from the year before. In total, over 1.2 billion units were shipped last year, marking a 29.1 percent upswing from 2011. Naturally, tablets and smartphones drove the boost by carving out roughly 60 percent of the year's combined marketshare, while PCs and notebook shipments sank by 4.1 and 3.4 percent, respectively.
While Samsung and Apple each claimed crowns in specific gadget divisions, Sammy came out on top with smart connected devices in 2012 as a whole (and in Q4) thanks to a 20.8 percent marketshare, beating Cupertino by 2.6 percent. Lenovo finished in third place with a 6.5 percent slice, while HP and Dell trailed behind with 4.8 and 3.2 percent, respectively. IDC notes that Cook. and Co. could have come in a more distant second, but the debut of the iPhone 5 and iPad Mini pulled it out of a slump from earlier in the year.
Filed under: Cellphones, Desktops, Laptops, Tablets, Mobile, Apple, Samsung
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Source: IDC
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