Last Year's fourth quarter sales volume increased by 18 percent, but market share decreased from 18.1 percent to 16.6 percent. When Apple's iPhone was released just a couple months ago, customers stormed to mobile stores to purchase this new, must have iPhone. However, the iPhone's market share has recently been dropping. On February 3, 2010, Apple Insider and Fortune reported that the iPhone's sales volume has increased, but the market share is gradually decreasing. ABI Research recently came out with a report showing that last year; iPhone's fourth quarter sales volume increased 18 percent compared to the third quarter. However, the iPhone's fourth quarter market shares dropped to16.5 percent compared to the third quarter's 18.1 percent.
An analyst stated, "The smartphone market is not growing as people expected." Last year's fourth quarter smartphone market included Google's release of the new Android smartphone which helped Nokia's selling growth increase by about 26 percent. ABI stated, "Last year's fourth quarter sales volume of the iPhone is approximately at US$8.7 million. Many were sold at that time, but the market share has decreased. It could be interpreted that the appearance of the rival Android smartphone could be a factor."
