The era of smartphones has officially begun: According to a recent report by market researchers of Canalys, 2011 saw more smartphones sold than PCs – a new record. 488 million smartphones were sold world-wide, a plus of 63% compared to the year before. Desktop PCs were sold 415 million times, 15% more than the year before. These figures are even more impressive considering that Canalys put tablets and netbooks under the PC category, not under smartphones.

The development of the client PC market is quite diverse though: The number of tablets sold in 2011 rose by 274% compared to 2010, while sales figures for netbooks went down by 25%. Notebook sales increased slightly by 7.5%, desktop PCs by 2.3%.

Milestone: Smartphones became a mainstream product within just a few years

Source: (c) Canalys

Android continues to be the market leader

Comparing operation systems, Android-operated smartphones are in the lead with a market share of 49% of all smartphones sold in 2011. iOS comes in second with a 19% market share and Symbian is on third with 16% market share. Apple sold 93 million iPhones in 2011 (+96%). In the final quarter of the year alone Apple’s sales figures reached 37 million units. Apple thus continues to be the leading smartphone manufacturer.

Smartphone market in 2011: Android asserts leadership

Source: (c) Canalys