IDC: Samsung and Apple on top of connected devices market

Analysts at IDC took a look at the connected device market - a category that encompasses computers, tablets and smartphones - and found that the phone and tablet market has a strong influence on the performance of individual companies and will only get stronger.

In the third quarter of this year Samsung was on top with a 21.8% market share (based on shipments), Apple took second place with 15.1%. Lenovo slid into third place away from HP, even though the shares of both companies declined.

Top 5 Smart Connected Device Vendors, Shipments, and Market Share, Q3 2012 (shipments in millions)

Vendor	3Q12 Unit Shipments	3Q12 Market Share	3Q11 Unit Shipments	3Q11 Market Share	3Q12/3Q11 Growth
Samsung	66.1	21.8%	33.5	14.0%	97.5%
Apple	45.8	15.1%	33.1	13.9%	38.3%
Lenovo	21.1	7.0%	13.2	5.5%	60.0%
HP	14.0	4.6%	17.6	7.4%	-20.5%
Sony	11.0	3.6%	8.7	3.7%	25.4%
Other	145.6	48.0%	132.7	55.6%	9.7%
Total	303.6	100.0%	238.9	100.0%	27.1%

As a whole, the connected devices market grew 27.1% compared to last year's third quarter and expectations for the holiday season are that the market will grow both year on year and quarter on quarter. Smartphones and tablets will be the major factor in Q4 growth (39.5% and 55.8% YoY respectively), while computers will decline a bit.

Shipping millions of units is great, but getting billions of dollars in return is even better. Apple is the leader in this regard, making $34.1 billion in Q3 this year, which makes for an Average Selling Price (ASP) of its devices across the three markets of $744. For comparison, Samsung's ASP is $434, though it ships 20 million more units than Apple.

IDC also looked to the future and its analysts estimate that market for computers hill be cut in half by 2016, while tablets will nearly double (but won't have overtaken traditional computers by 2016). Smartphones will have the lion's share of the market.

Smart Connected Device Market by Product Category, Shipments, Market Share, 2012-1016 (shipments in millions)

Product Category	2016 Unit Shipments	2016 Market Share	2012 Unit Shipments	2012 Market Share	2016/2012 Growth
Desktop PC	151.0	7.2%	149.2	12.5%	1.2%
Portable PC	268.8	12.8%	205.1	17.2%	31.1%
Smartphone	1405.3	66.7%	717.5	60.1%	95.9%
Tablet	282.7	13.4%	122.3	10.2%	131.2%
Total	2107.8	100.0%	1194.0	100.0%	76.5%

Keep in mind that predictions for this far ahead in the future are usually not too accurate.

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