Foxconn reportedly halts hiring due to slow iPhone 5 production, resumes next month (for next iPhone?)

Jordan Kahn

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Update: While it’s hard to read too much into these reports, Foxconn told The Wall Street Journal the freeze on hiring is a result of ”a high employee return rate following the Lunar New Year holiday.”

According to the report from Financial Times, Apple’s major assembly partner Foxconn has halted new hiring at its facilities due to a slow down in production for the iPhone 5:

The suspension in hiring by China’s largest private sector employer and the biggest assembler of Apple products, is the first such countrywide move since the 2009 downturn, prompted by the financial crisis. It underscores the weakening demand for some Apple products, which has put pressure on the US company’s battered share price.

Foxconn confirmed it is not currently hiring in its plants located in mainland China, and FT reported the company’s employees were informed that hiring would stop until at least the end of March “in response to reduced orders for the iPhone 5.” While the iPhone 5 doesn’t seem to be experiencing a slow down, according to the latest numbers from Strategy Analytics, the March time frame would line up nicely with rumors of iPhone 5S production beginning in March. Many analysts are calling for a June or July launch of the next-generation iPhone, and Apple could begin initial production as early as next month if true. The decreased production at Foxconn is likely thanks to the expected falloff in new sales in the months following the busy holiday season. Less likely is speculation that Apple could be switching manufacturers.

Recruiters in China told FT that Foxconn has stopped hiring specifically for the iPhone and iPad production lines in many of its factories:

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Apple maintains lead as top smartphone vendor in US, hits 20 percent of worldwide PC market

Jordan Kahn

Following a report from Strategy Analytics earlier this month that had Apple as the No.1 mobile phone vendor in the United States for the first time, research firm comScore is out today with its stats for the three-month period ending in December 2012. ComScore looked at the top smartphone subscribers by OEM and the top smartphone platforms, which doesn’t include mobile phones other than smartphones like Strategy Analytics’ report.

According to the report, Apple was able to increase its share from 34.4-percent in the September quarter to 36.3-percent last quarter. Samsung also increased its share—although was significantly behind Apple but still up from 18.7-percent in the quarter before—to 21 percent of the market. HTC, Motorola, and LG rounded out the last three spots in the category with 10.2-percent, 9.1-percent, and 7.1-percent of the U.S. market in December. While Apple was able to grab the top smartphone vendor position, Android maintained its lead over iOS as the top smartphone platform during the quarter.

Google captured 53.4-percent of smartphone subscribers with Android in Q4, up from 52.5-percent in September. In comparison, Apple came in at 36.3-percent and posted a slightly larger increase than Android with two points from 34.3-percent the quarter before. Growth for iOS and Android, like in previous months, comes at the expense of declines for BlackBerry and Microsoft.

Canalys also released a report today that tracked worldwide PC shipments in the fourth quarter—a category that also includes iPads. According to the report, Apple continued its lead in the PC market by hitting over 20 percent for the first time with over 27 million units shipped. Macs accounted for 4 million of those units, while the report estimated iPad mini made up about half of the remaining 23 million iPads:

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Report: iOS and Android capture record 92 percent of global smartphone market in Q4 2012

Jordan Kahn

Strategy-Analytics-2013-Jan-Q412

According to the latest numbers from Strategy Analytics that measure global smartphone operating system shipments and marketshare for the fourth quarter of 2012, iOS and Android together accounted for 92 percent of all shipments. Both iOS and Android were able to significantly increase market share over Q3, while global smartphone shipments over the entire year reached a record 700.1 million units.

As for iOS, Apple grew 29 percent annually by selling 135.8 million iPhones throughout the year. The company captured 22 percent of the market in Q4, down from the 24 percent it held in the year-ago quarter, and its share of the smartphone market for the year comes in at 19.4-percent. According to Strategy Analytics, that is up slightly from the 19 percent it took during 2011.

With the “others” category shrinking from 32.3-percent of the market in 2011 to just 12.2-percent in 2012, Android was able to post the largest gains jumping to 70.1-percent of the global market during the fourth quarter from 51.3-percent a year ago. The other category of course includes other platforms, such as BlackBerry, Symbian, Bada, and Windows, all of which together only grabbed 7.9-percent of the market in Q4 2012. That’s down from 25.1-percent in Q4 2011. Android’s gains are clearly at the expense of the “others,” as Apple continues to slowly gain marketshare as well.

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Report: Apple and Samsung dominate Q4 with 51 percent of global smartphone market

Jordan Kahn

IDC-Q4-2012-shipments

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Q4 2012 estimates from Strategy Analytics

While Samsung has conveniently left specific smartphone sales numbers out of its Q4 earnings release yesterday (as usual), today we get a look at the latest estimates for the quarter coming from research firms Strategy Analytics and IDC.

We know that Apple sold 47.8 million iPhones during the quarter, and today both research firms put Samsung just over 63 million units for Q4 2012. That means Samsung was able to capture 29 percent of the market last quarter (up from 36.2 million units and 22.5-percent of the market in the year ago quarter). Apple is of course a close second among the top five smartphone vendors with 21.8-percent—down slightly from the 23 percent it held in the same quarter last year. In Q4 2011, Apple and Samsung were neck and neck at about 23 percent of the market each.

The increasing market share for Apple, and especially Samsung, over the past year comes at the expense of Nokia. It experienced a drop from 16 percent to 5 percent of the market during the past year.  Read more

Study: Smartphone owners demand bigger screens, prefer 4+ inches

Seth Weintraub

An interesting study out of Strategy Analytics today says that United States and United Kingdom smartphone owners “prefer device screens in the 4.0-inch to 4.5-inch range, as long as the device is also thin.”

“Almost 90 percent of existing smartphone owners surveyed chose a prototype smartphone with a display larger than their current device,” commented Paul Brown, a Director in the Strategy Analytics User Experience Practice. “This trend is driven by increased mobile web browsing ability, as well as engaging video and gaming experiences.”

Not surprisingly, women overall chose smaller phones than men, and existing Android users chose bigger screens than iPhone users. Still, it seems Apple’s customers would prefer a bigger screen.

Kevin Nolan, Vice-President for the User Experience Practice at Strategy Analytics, added, “In order for smartphone owners to adopt larger devices, it is important for handset manufacturers to ensure that mobile devices are not too heavy and that the devices remain thin enough for purses and pockets.”

The data seems to line up with our January poll of 9to5Mac readers in which the majority prefers the next iPhone to be 4-inches or more:

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Amazon’s Kindle Fire reduces Apple’s lead, but iPad still rules holiday quarter with 58 percent market share

9to5 Staff

Apple’s iPad maintained its market lead throughout fourth quarter of last year even though it lost some ground compared to the previous quarter due to an influx of Android-based tablets. In fact, Amazon’s dirt-cheap Kindle Fire device that costs just $199 saved the day for Android slates, really. This is the gist of the latest survey by research firm Strategy Analytics that was released this morning.

Global tablet shipments reached 26.8 million units in the fourth quarter of 2011— up 150 percent from 10.7 million from the year-ago quarter. Global tablet shipments hit 66.9 million units throughout 2011— a 260 percent increase from just 18.6 million units in 2010. Looking at how tablet vendors performed throughout Q4 2011, the survey recorded a 39.1 percent share for tablets powered by Android. Even though it is a record for tablets driven by Google’s software, Apple sold 15.43 million iPads during the holiday quarter for a healthy 57.6 percent share. This left the remaining 3 percent for tablets outside the Android/iOS tablet duopoly, with Microsoft-driven devices holding onto 1 percent share of the market.

This compares to a Strategy Analytics’ survey for the September 2011 quarter that depicted a 27 percent share for Android tablets in Q3 2011 (up from 2.3 percent in Q3 2010) and 67 percent for iPad (down from 96 percent in Q3 2010). Android tablets are clearly picking up steam, largely based on the success of Amazon’s device that launched Oct. 15, 2011. Still, the iPad is expected to remain king of the hill as analysts expect its lead to maintain throughout 2012.

Strategy Analytics Research Director Peter King opined:

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