IDC: Smart Connected Devices Surpassed 1 Billion Device Shipments In 2012

According the the IDC, smart connected devices surpassed 1 billion shipments in 2012, with around 1.2 billion devices being shipped worldwide. Smart connected devices shipments grew 29.1% year-over-year in 2012. Tablet shipments played a huge role in the shipments increase. There was a 78.4% year-over-year growth in tablet shipments last year, with over 128 million tablets being shipped out globally. The surge in tablet shipments is most likely due to the large amount of budget-friendly tablets available, like Amazon's Kindle Fire.

Tablets are also expected to continue their momentum this year, with an anticipated 48.7% year-over-year increase in sales. However, to steal tablet's thunder, there was a huge amount of shipments worldwide for smartphones. Around 722 million smartphones were shipped worldwide last year. Smartphones saw a 46.1% year-over-year increase, and is expected to have a 27.2% year-over-year increase this year. Shipments of smartphones surpassed that of tablets, desktop PCs, and laptops combined.

Looking more into the smart connected device market, Apple's shipments nearly caught up to Samsung's shipments in 2012. In Q4 2012, Apple had a 20.3% unit shipment share, nearly catching up to Samsung's 21.2% shipment share. However, in terms of revenue, Apple is still the leader, generating a 30.7% share of the quarter's total revenue compared to Samsung's 20.4%. All in all, there was a total of $168 billion in revenue generated in Q4.

While the mobile device market is doing extremely well, the computer market unfortunately is still doing horribly. In 2012, Desktop PCs saw a 4.1% year-over-year decrease in shipments, with only 148.4 million PCs shipped globally. It's expected to continue down that downward slope with a 4.3% year-over-year decrease this year as well. Laptops had a 3.4% year-over-year decrease last year, with only 202 million units shipped worldwide. However, on the bright side, it's expected to have a 0.9% year-over-year increase this year. If you think surpassing 1 billion shipments is impressive, in 2017, smart connected devices are expected to reach up to 2.25 billion shipments.

[via Business Wire]