iPhone - 27% US Market Share in Q3.

Against all the predictions of Steve Ballmer, and warnings from Gartner and Forrester, the iPhone was second only to the Blackberry in US Sales numbers for Q3 - according to Canalys. This astounding market-share growth highlights the significant transformation occurring in the Mobile Phone industry.

A number of websites have been publishing articles about the recent numbers for Q3 (July-September) released in a report by Canalys. Check out these articles by Daniel Eran Dilger at RoughlyDrafted and Seth Weintraub at ComputerWorld.

Aside from the dramatic numbers, the key trends according to Weintraub are:

“(1) Palm is dead everywhere but in the North America, where it is falling sharply.
(2) Symbian is huge everywhere besides North America, but obviously has the most to lose with the iPhone being released around the world next year.
(3) Microsoft’s mobile strategy is failing miserably. They don’t crack 10% anywhere but in North America where they are behind RIM and iPhone and dropping.
(4) Blackberry, while strong in North America, has a much smaller global market share.
(5) Linux is big in China and Japan but insignificant elsewhere.
(6) Apple is poised to be the number one US Smartphone vendor next year if trends keep up.”

But what else do these numbers tell us?

Clearly, lots of people in North America want Apple’s iPhone enough to buy it, in spite of the bazaar carrier-locked business model, the apparently malicious ‘bricking’, and the continuing ‘cat’n mouse’ games with the would-be unlockers. And judging from this included graph of November Mobile Browser Stats, the trend is set to continue:

Aside from being hugely embarrassing for the nay-sayers (as Weintraub rightly points out), this huge consumer desire for Apple’s radical new mobile experience WILL drive demand in the Enterprise - probably starting with the most senior executives. Which means that I.T. departments should start putting the iPhone on their radar at the very least.

The numbers speak for themselves. Even here in New Zealand (where of course the iPhone has not yet been officially released) I am seeing significant interest and in some cases, real demand - 4 people on my floor at work now have unlocked iPhones. And personally, I am very much enjoying using mine. It feels like I have finally found a phone that actually deserves the label ’21st Century Device’.

We all said the iPhone would change everything, and it looks like it actually is. Watch this space…