Apple's Smartphone Market Share Dips despite Strong Sales

Despite 100 percent year-over-year iPhone sales growth in its most recent quarter, Apple saw a 1.5 percent decrease in smartphone market share between the third and fourth quarter of 2009. This, according to an ABI document seen by the Wall Street Journal, came despite a 26 percent growth in the overall smartphone market during the same period. Although total market share dropped, Apple did sell 18 percent more iPhones in the fourth quarter than the third, according to the company's fourth quarter earnings report.

To say that Apple did poorly during the quarter would be inaccurate—instead, while Apple did well, the overall smartphone market did better. Coincidentally Apple's last drop in smartphone market share occurred in the fourth quarter of 2008, leading us to believe the drop may be related to the holiday season and customers giving less-expensive smartphones a shot in a poor economy.