According to Taipei-based Market Intelligence & Consulting Institute (MIC), shipments of the Apple’s iPhone integrated circuits increased by 31 per cent to 116.97 million units in the third quarter of 2009, indicating that the iPhone will be doing pretty well too. Analysts from MIC expect sales of the Apple iPhone to reach a record-breaking 10 million in the fourth quarter of 2009 alone. In October, Apple proudly announced that it sold a whopping 7.4 million iPhones in the third quarter, representing a seven percent unit growth over the year-ago quarter.
Back in 2008, Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster predicted that over 45 million iPhone units would be sold in 2009. Based on his expectations, it seems that a 10 million iPhone quarter barely qualifies as adequate. However, I personally believe that if Apple were to sell 10 million iPhone units in the current quarter, it’s already considered as an impressive feat, bearing in mind that the number of sales in the last quarter was only 7.4 million.
With the launch of Google’s new Nexus One in January next year, it makes me wonder if this phone will be the iPhone killer. The Nexus One, a slim and sleek phone which runs on Google’s Android 2.1 operating system and manufactured by HTC, looks beautiful and impressive. The smartphone could beat Apple’s hallmark product because it comes with features that the iPhone doesn’t have; it will be unlocked, which means it can be used on any carrier, and it’s from Google, a notable company. However, most likely Google would not overtake the position of iPhone in a short term. There are more than 100,000 apps on the Apple App Store, whereas Google has only 20,000 Android apps. Google needs to persuade developers to develop apps for Android in order to keep up to par with the app store.
Maybe in the next few years, the Nexus One will emerge as the leader in the smartphone market.