Chinese handset manufacturer ZTE is now the 4th largest globally, by volume

"According to new global handset market figures released yesterday by market research firm IDC, Chinese telecom equipment and terminal manufacturer ZTE had Q3 2011 shipments of 19.1 mln handsets, surpassing Apple to gain a firm fourth-place position with 4.9% of the global market. Nokia and Samsung maintained the first- and second-place positions; LG, in third place, had a 5.4% share of the market. ZTE said that it plans to become one of the world's top three handset makers by shipments over the next three to five years."

Source;  Data from IDC, reported by Beijing News, via Marbridge Daily, 2nd November 2011

Apple sold 17m iPhones and 11m iPads in the quarter to October 2011

"Apple® today announced financial results for its fiscal 2011 fourth quarter ended September 24, 2011. The Company posted quarterly revenue of $28.27 billion and quarterly net profit of $6.62 billion, or $7.05 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $20.34 billion and net quarterly profit of $4.31 billion, or $4.64 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 40.3 percent compared to 36.9 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 63 percent of the quarter’s revenue.
The Company sold 17.07 million iPhones in the quarter, representing 21 percent unit growth over the year-ago quarter. Apple sold 11.12 million iPads during the quarter, a 166 percent unit increase over the year-ago quarter. The Company sold 4.89 million Macs during the quarter, a 26 percent unit increase over the year-ago quarter. Apple sold 6.62 million iPods, a 27 percent unit decline from the year-ago quarter."
Source:  Press release from Apple, 18th October 2011

More tablets were shipped than netbooks in Q2 2011

"Media tablet shipments surpassed netbook shipments this quarter, reaching 13.6 million units, compared to just 7.3 million netbooks. Netbooks had previously led the way with 8.4 million shipments in 1Q11, compared to just 6.4 million media tablets.
“This is a trend that we do not expect will reverse,” says Jeff Orr, group director, mobile devices. “As they are different segments, this is not a direct replacement behavior, but a changing of leadership for the most interesting device type.”
Driving media tablet interest is Apple’s iPad 2. 68% of the media tablet shipments in 2Q11 consisted of Apple iPad models. Consumers are choosing tablets over netbooks for a number of reasons. “Media tablets are perceived to be easy to use, compared to the keyboard and mouse interface of a netbook computer. Those who have avoided PCs because they are difficult to use – think the Baby Boomer generation and older – see media tablets as an opportunity to re-engage with Internet access. Cost, however, is certainly not a reason driving tablet interest, as the average media tablet costs approximately $600 and the average netbook is only about half of that,” says Orr."

Source:  Data from ABI Research, reported in a press release, 20th October 2011

Samsung is the most popular handset manufacturer in the US

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Source:  Press release from comScore, 5th October 2011
Note - click on the link to see stats on OS share & more

The median size of a TV reviewed on CNet

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The data shows that the median size of a TV reviewed on CNET grew from 34 inches in 2002 to 46 inches in 2009.
Source:  Blog post on Flowing Data, 29th September 2009
Note - this is more 'interesting' than 'scientific', but it seems to illustrate that the TVs in people's homes are getting bigger, which rings true for me.
From the blog post:
"The numbers come from the past 745 dated CNet television reviews.  While reviews aren't a direct indicator of what televisions people buy, they do show what's on the market"

Samsung has sold 3m Galaxy S II handsets since late April

"Samsung, the South Korean electronics giant, is about to be crowned the new leader in the mobile phone world after selling more than 3m units of its Galaxy S II smartphone since its debut in late April, and around 19m smartphones in all during the past quarter.
Analysts think that the Android-based Galaxy S II could be the company's best-selling model ever, with sales potentially hitting 20m units. Overall, the company could have captured 17% of the world smartphone in the past three months."

Source:  The Guardian, 5th July 2011

HTC's sales nearly doubled Y-o-Y in June 2011

"Taiwan smartphone maker HTC Corp's consolidated sales for June were T$45.05 billion ($1.55 billion), up 87.8 percent from the same month a year earlier.
The monthly sales compared with T$23.991 billion a year ago and T$40.621 billion in the previous month.
The year-on-year growth rate of sales in June slowed from May's 116 percent. In January 2011, sales had grown 213 percent year on year."

Source:  Reuters, 3rd July 2011

Ownership of eBook readers doubled in the US in the 6 months to May 2011

"The share of adults in the United States who own an e-book reader doubled to 12% in May, 2011  from 6% in November 2010.  E-readers, such as a Kindle or Nook, are portable devices designed to allow readers to download and read books and periodicals.  This is the first time since the Pew Internet Project began measuring e-reader use in April 2009 that ownership of this device has reached double digits among U.S. adults.
Tablet computers—portable devices similar to e-readers but designed for more interactive web functions—have not seen the same level of growth in recent months.  In May 2011, 8% of adults report owning a tablet computer such as an iPad, Samsung Galaxy or Motorola Xoom.  This is roughly the same percentage of adults who reported owning this kind of device in January 2011 (7%), and represents just a 3 percentage-point increase in ownership since November 2010.  Prior to that, tablet ownership had been climbing relatively quickly."

Source:  Report by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, 27th June 2011

More people visit an Apple store in a quarter than visit Disney's 4 biggest theme parks in a year

"More people now visit Apple's 326 stores in a single quarter than the 60 million who visited Walt Disney Co.'s four biggest theme parks last year, according to data from Apple and the Themed Entertainment Association.
"Apple's annual retail sales per square foot have soared to $4,406—excluding online sales, according to investment bank Needham & Co. Add in online sales, which include iTunes, and the number jumps to $5,914. That's far higher than the sales per square foot and online sales of jeweler Tiffany & Co. ($3,070), luxury retailer Coach Inc. ($1,776), and electronics retailer Best Buy Co. ($880), according to estimates."
Simply amazing. In 2001, when the stores were launched, they were expected to be a flop within a year - perhaps two - because companies such as Gateway had failed with them. Dell tried them and didn't thrive. Intriguing view from behind the counter."

Source:  Data from Apple and the Themed Entertainment Association, reported by the WSJ, and The Guardian, 16th June 2011

Apple data revealed at the WWDC Keynote

"Mac sales rose 28 percent year-over-year during Apple’s last quarter, while PC sales declined 1 percent
There are now 54 million active Mac users around the world.
Mac sales have outpaced the broader PC market for 5 years, 22 straight quarters
Apple has sold 200 million IOS devices to date …
… which accounts for more than 44 percent of the mobile market
25 million iPads were sold in the device’s 14 months of availability
15 billion songs have been sold from the iTunes store …
… making Apple the #1 music retailer in the world
130 million books have been downloaded from iBooks
There are 425,000 apps in the app store
90,000 of them are designed specifically for the iPad
14 billion apps have been downloaded from the App Store in less than 3 years
Apple has paid some $2.5 billion to developers building apps for the app store
There are 225 million iTunes Store accounts, all of them with associated credit cards and 1-click purchasing
There are 50 million Game Center users. XBox Live, which has been around for a lot longer, only has about 30 million
IOS users send more than 1 billion Tweets a week
To date, about 100 billion push notifications have been sent to iOS devices
The iPhone 4′s camera is the second most used camera on Flickr"
Source:  Data revealed at the WWDC keynote on 6th June, reported by AllThingsD, 7th June 2011

An estimated 5% of the American population own a Tablet device

"Of all the wireless devices that have hit the market in the past several years, tablets present the biggest commercial opportunity for media owners, in terms of what consumers are willing to pay for and consume on the devices. But for now, that opportunity is, at best, a mid-to-long-term one. Research from Nielsen—being presented for the first time today at the paidContent Mobile conference—shows that in the U.S. today, more than 95 percent of consumers have yet to buy one.
Despite the huge amount of hype that has surrounded the iPad and the many other tablets hitting the market—they include Android-based devices, the recently-launched Playbook from RIM (NSDQ: RIMM), and the soon-to-come TouchPad from HP —the researches note that as of Q1 2011, only 4.8 percent of the roughly 12,000 U.S. consumers surveyed have bought one. That number is likely even smaller in most other markets, even developed ones. Paul Lee, an director of TMT research with Deloitte in the UK, estimates that in the UK the number of tablet users is 1 out of every 60 people—or 1.7 percent."

Source:  Research from Nielsen and Deloitte (separately), reported by PaidContent, 18th May 2011

Note - Bear in mind that before the iPad almost no one had a Tablet, so since April 3rd 2010 nearly 5% of the US population have one.  This is meant to be a bad performance?  

Look at this chart from The Mobile Internet Report Setup by Morgan Stanley in December 2009 (chart 42) which shows the comparative adoption of technology devices including the iPod, Wii, Blackberry and so on.  All had exposure disproportionate to their sales in the early days, but all were very influential.  

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Apple has overtaken Google to become the world's most valuable brand

"Apple is the world's most valuable brand with a value of $153.3 billion, according to Millard Brown Optimor's annual "BrandZ: Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands" study released today. In just one year, Apple's brand value has increased by 84 percent, the study said.
Google, the leader in the study for four years running, was knocked down to second place this year, losing 2 percent of its brand value to end up at $111.5 billion.
IBM, McDonald's, and Microsoft rounded out the top five with brand values of $100.8 billion, $81 billion, and $78.2 billion in brand value, respectively."
Source:  Data from Millward Brown Optimor's Brandz survey, reported by CNET, 9th May 2011
Methodology:  "Millard Brown Optimor's BrandZ study is derived from both financial performance and "in-depth" interviews of consumers about their perceptions of brands and why they choose a specific product over another. The company's database includes 2 million such interviews from 30 countries."
Full report available here

Portability & ease of use are the most common reasons for using a tablet instead of a PC or laptop

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Source:  Blog post by Nielsen, 5th May 2011
Note - US data only

Nintendo sold 440,000 3DS consoles in the US in the first week of sale

"Nintendo Co., the world’s biggest maker of video-game consoles, said it sold almost 440,000 units of the 3DS handheld game player during its first week of U.S. sales in late March.
Combined with three older models, Nintendo sold 860,000 DS units in March, Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime said, citing figures from industry tracker NPD Group Inc. A year ago, Nintendo sold 701,000 DS handhelds.
“We had a great start to the Nintendo 3DS, and portables overall had their best March in history,” Fils-Aime said yesterday in a phone interview.
Nintendo, unlike some Japanese manufacturers, has not faced supply constraints on its products following last month’s earthquake and tsunami in northern Japan, Fils-Aime said. Shipments of the $250 3DS, which plays 3-D images without the need for special glasses, haven’t been affected, and the company still plans to deliver a new Web browser and Netflix streaming before the end of the summer, he said."

Source:  Bloomberg, 15th April 2011