Apple’s shipments grew 114 percent from the previous year, jumping from 8.7 million to 18.7 million handsets, and achieved a new record shipment volume during this past quarter. It now trails world industry leader Nokia by only 5.5 million shipped units. Research In Motion shipped 13.9 million BlackBerry devices during the quarter, while Samsung and HTC had 10.8 and 8.9 million shipments, based largely on the strength of their Android devices.

IDC attributes Apple’s terrific quarter to its triple-digit growth in the U.S. and China, and cites the CDMA-enabled iPhone as key to that growth. The company also signed on South Korean Telecom and Saudi Telecom during the quarter, both of which provided access to large pools of potential new iPhone buyers.

Overall, the entire smartphone market saw 79.7 percent growth year over year according to IDC, and even Nokia and RIM, both of which lost share as measured by percentage, actually saw total shipments rise. Apple was a strong contributor to the overall rise, but HTC and Samsung both made much more impressive advances as measured by percentage increase in shipments. Samsung, thanks to its strong Galaxy line of smartphones, saw a 350-percent increase in handsets shipped between 2010 and 2011, while HTC saw 229 percent growth. Both handset makers embraced Android early and are reaping the benefits over those who came late to the Android party.

Apple’s growth may not match that of Android handset makers in terms of percentage, but considering Apple’s existing reach, that would be hard to do. The growth it’s experiencing is still impressive, considering its 20-percent market share, but it still needs to start thinking about better ways to reach more potential subscribers. Signing on new carriers thanks to CDMA (and possibly world-phone versions) of its devices will help, but if, as Apple itself has suggested, it’s planning low-cost versions of its top-selling iPhone, that’s the surest way to guarantee growth continues to stay positive and even rise.

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Android now accounts for 28.7 percent of the U.S. smartphone market, up 7.3 points from the previous three month period, which ended in September of 2010. Apple saw only a 0.7 point gain, jumping from 24.3 to 25.0 percent during the same period. Both companies edged closer to BlackBerry maker RIM, which dropped 5.7 percentage points from 37.3 to 31.6 percent.

Google’s OS also recently overtook Nokia to become the top smartphone platform worldwide, according to research firm Canalys. But Android’s global reach only tells half the story. The other half is revealed in another new study, detailing global mobile broadband traffic. Network firm Allot Communications released its report on smartphone internet usage Tuesday, collecting information from upwards of 210 million subscribers. The report revealed that Apple’s App Store accounted for 89 percent of mobile software marketplace traffic during 2010, while the Android Market only accounted for 9 percent. The Android Market’s growth over the course of the year was 177 percent, compared to the App Store’s 54 percent, but that’s still a very wide margin.

Apple’s App Store success is a better measure of how iOS is doing than simple market share alone. Market share is important to companies insofar as it represents a way to attract developers to create applications for their platform, which in turn will attract customers who’ll then buy those applications and feel invested (or locked) in to that OS (for more on this, check out the excellent and more detailed explanation at DiogeneX). Google, despite its mobile market share victories, knows it has a problem when it comes to attracting developers, and when it comes to selling paid apps, which is the key to generating lock-in (and by extension, platform loyalty). That’s why the Android-maker recently unveiled a number of significant changes to the Android Market.

Because the App Store has done so well, so quickly, iOS is far less likely to succumb to an erosion of its user base down the road. People have hundreds of dollars invested in the platform already, and if Allot’s figures are accurate, that’s much more than the average Android user, since iOS users are already more likely to spend on apps than Android ones, and they also spend more time browsing the store. That could be why so many Android (and BlackBerry) users seemed ready and willing to switch to iOS when the iPhone 4 came to Verizon.

Android is cheap, and available on a myriad of devices and carriers. Apple’s iOS device pricing is more or less fixed,  fairly expensive and it really comes on only two distinct models of smartphone. And depending on your location, it might not be available on your preferred network. So yes, Android’s growth was bound to explode, but that doesn’t erase or run counter to Apple’s steady progress. Once again, Apple is making the long-term play, and the App Store is the key to that gambit, not worldwide platform adoption.

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However, it wasn’t really a terrible loss for RIM, as the entire smartphone market grew 78 percent overall. Though Apple did surpass RIM in sales volume (and seems poised to ship even more in the future, since supply constraints provided a choke point in 2010), it still has a long way to go before it approaches Nokia, the reigning king of the smartphone hill.

Nokia shipped 26.5 million devices during the three-month period. Apple, by contrast, shipped only 14.5 million, almost half as much as its biggest rival. Nokia benefits from a much greater presence in Asia and Europe, and will be hard to shake from its lofty perch, though it’s losing ground. It held 34.4 percent of the market in this latest scan, down from 37.8 percent from the same period the previous year.

Apple’s market share grew from 17.0 to 18.3 percent over the year. The BlackBerry’s take dropped as much as Nokia’s, falling from 19.6 to 16.1 percent; RIM shipped 12.3 million devices during the quarter. The Canadian company is missing out in large part due to “a limited presence in the high-growth touchscreen segment” according to Strategy Analytics.

According to analysts from Canacord Genuity, a firm 0perating in RIM’s own backyard, Apple’s lead in the smartphone market may be insurmountable at this point, even for Google.

Following Monday’s conference call, the firm raised its target price on Apple stock to $421 and called Apple “unbeatable.” Analyst Micheal Walkley said simply, “We agree with his views,” referring to Jobs’ claim that “we’ve now passed RIM and I don’t see them catching up with us in the foreseeable future.” Analysts also agreed that Android was too fragmented, and argued that the App Store’s head start in terms of its software library is a market-defining advantage.

Unbeatable is a strong word to use in a sector as prone to transformative change as mobile tech, but Apple is currently occupying a position in the market that almost no one would’ve predicted five years ago, so perhaps in this case, it’s merited.

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During the course of the past year, Apple’s stock price has experienced 40 percent growth, based mostly on the strength of the iPad’s success in bolstering its already strong sales of iOS devices. Compared to the overall NASDAQ average growth of only 1.2 percent, Apple’s success is meteoric.

Andy Perkins, a Societe Generale analyst based in London, told CNNMoney.com that part of the reason behind Apple’s ballooning stock price is its ability to beat expectations consistently. “The anticipation was as they shipped more the price would lower,” said Perkins, talking about the iPad .”But the margins have kept much higher than people had anticipated.”

Apple does not pay dividends on its stock, despite some analysts urging them to do so, arguing that a payout could encourage growth. Cupertino stopped dividend payouts in 1995, when it decided to focus all of its revenue back into growth at a time when it was locked in heated competition with Microsoft.

Some argue it no longer needs to do that, and could spend some of its roughly $50 billion cash on-hand in dividends for investors, or in repurchasing shares. Others aren’t so sure, arguing instead that Apple should continue to hold on to its cash so it has plenty of room to innovate. A smaller cash pile would mean it could absorb less risk, meaning more ambitious projects might fall by the wayside.

So can Apple continue this level of success? Analysts, predicting strong fourth-quarter results, say yes. Bank of America (BofA), Merrill Lynch and Oppenheimer have all raised their price targets for Apple recently. BofA is now setting $400 as its target price, up from $360, while Oppenheimer’s has gone up to $345 from $330. One of the primary reasons for the new targets was that Apple itself has projected fourth-quarter revenue exceeding analyst expectations, despite being a company that normally embraces much more cautious estimates.

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Millenial used to be number three, but that changed when Google acquired the largest, AdMob, and Apple acquired the second largest, Quattro, which it recently shuttered in favor of its own iAd platform. That means the closest to unbiased numbers regarding mobile ads that we’re likely to get are probably from Millenial.

In July 2010, Apple led the pack with 35 percent of all mobile ad impressions and 55 percent of smartphone ads. Smartphones overall accounted for just about half of all mobile ad impressions, with 49 percent of that pie. Connected devices — including the Nintendo DS and Sony PSP among others — accounted for another 19 percent, while feature phones saw only 32 percent of the ads. It’s yet another sign that the dumb phone is on its way out, at least as a viable means of revenue for advertisers.

In the smartphone arena, Apple’s lead is still quite commanding. The next closest platform in term of ad impressions served is Android, and it accounted for only 19 percent of the smartphone share. Next closest was RIM, with BlackBerry devices seeing 16 percent of all ads. Finally, Microsoft’s Windows Mobile came in a distant fourth with 4 percent. All other platforms combined added up to 6 percent.

The success of Apple’s platform becomes very apparent when you take into consideration how developers are prioritizing ad targeting. Of those targeting multiple platforms, 100 percent are intent on supporting Apple’s iOS. Android is next closest with 75 percent of developers, and RIM is next with only 46 percent. Twenty-nine percent target Symbian, which is still a major player in the Asian market, and 21 percent employ Java. Finally, 17 percent target other platforms, including Windows Mobile.

These numbers reflect the sales success of the iPhone and its various competitors to date, but Android’s ever-expanding reach has the platform poised to takeover that majority share sooner rather than later. I predict a parity between or a reversal of the top two spots, at least in terms of developer support, by this time next year, based on the trajectory of Google’s mobile OS to date and the success of phones like the Droid and its successors.

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For the moment, though, Apple is doing much better than anyone in the space, really. The latest comScore report, which covers a three month period from September to December of 2009, shows Apple as having 25.3 percent of the total smartphone market share, up 1.2 points from 24.1 percent at the beginning of the period measured.

Research In Motion (RIM) came in first place overall once again, with 41.6 percent of U.S. smartphone subscribers opting for a BlackBerry device. But that number represented a slide, ultimately, as RIM began the measurement period with 42.6 percent. Microsoft and Palm likewise slipped, with MS dropping from 19 to 18 percent, and Palm losing 2.2 points, down to 6.1 percent.

Google had the lowest market share of the bunch, with 5.2 percent of subscribers. But that number was up from only 2.5 percent in September, suggesting that it was probably helped along considerably with the introduction of the Motorola Droid. 2.7 points also represents the largest market share grab made by any smartphone manufacturer over the period of the report, so Google is indeed the company Apple needs to be most worried about.

Palm is probably the company everyone needs to be least worried about. The Pre and Pixi maker lost almost as much market share as Google gained, and was the only company on the list to post such a significant loss of ground. The Pre Plus and Pixi Plus could alter its fortunes, but I honestly can’t see customers who were disappointed with the originals going back for more at this point.

Going forward, Apple’s main concern is going to be with Google and how it fares now that it’s begun taking more control over its own smartphone future. The Nexus One drastically undersold the iPhone both in the first week and in the first month, so that’s got to be good news for Apple. That said, Google is doing something pretty much unprecented with regards to smartphone sales in the U.S., and it’s only selling the device in the U.S. as of yet. Apple had the advantage of selling its device through AT&T when it launched, which was an established sales and marketing channel for such devices already.

Apple’s growth over the period measured in the comScore report remains impressive, though, given that it had not introduced a new smartphone model since much, much earlier in the year. Google’s rise can be almost entirely attributed to the initially strong sales of the Motorola Droid, which was arguably the “it” device of the pre-Christmas season.

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BetaNews’ Joe Wilcox writes:

It’s a stunning number, given just how many Windows PC companies combined command so much more market share, while competing for the same revenue share.

The numbers are impressive, but a little perspective goes a long way. The economy has seen sales of new computers decline, particularly in the run-up to the launch of Windows 7. Customers in search of a new computer held-back on purchases while they waited for the new OS (and the newer Windows 7-sporting machines from manufacturers) became available. And let’s not forget the state of the economy. This recession has had a significant impact on PC sales.

Stephen Baker, NPD’s vice president of industry analysis, told Wilcox:

You’re comparing the [iMac] launch month this year to the month last year when people stopped going into stores to buy things,” Baker said. “To some extent it’s a little bit apples and oranges.”

Still, it makes for great headlines, and I’m sure Apple won’t fail to wedge appropriate charts (sans actual numbers) into Steve’s next keynote presentation.

It’s worth noting that the numbers go the other way when comparing Laptops. Apple’s share of the laptop market was 34 percent in October this year, down on last year’s 38 percent. That said, laptops (Apple and otherwise) have come a long way in terms of power and price, (in 2008 it overtook desktops for the first time in global shipments) and dominating over a third of that market in North America is no small feat. It’s even more impressive than that — NPD also says that the average selling price (ASP) of Mac laptops in October this year was $1,410, more than twice the $519 ASP of Windows laptops.

Of course, there’s still the fiddly question of sustainability; now Apple has achieved these heady figures, can it keep them? The most probable answer is, no, not really. These figures are the result of unique conditions in the market (after all, global recessions and major Windows OS releases tend not to coincide, never mind on an annual basis) and it seems practical to conclude that Apple’s desktop market share is bound to decline in the next year, barring, of course, any surprising changes in that market. (Y’know, like Windows 7 inexplicably failing, or half the world’s PC manufacturers going out of business overnight… in other words, the sort of major surprises that are really, really unlikely.)

One thing you can be certain of; this time next year, as the economy strengthens and OEMs lower the prices of their no-longer-new Windows 7 machines, Apple’s share of desktop retail revenue will likely drop back to more ‘normal’ levels. And can you guess what the headlines will be when that happens?

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Of all the file syncing solutions available, one of the most popular is Dropbox. As one of the solutions that is also cross-platform compatible, many Mac users have embraced Dropbox as a more reliable and robust solution than other alternatives, like MobileMe’s iDisk. Diehard Dropbox users can now rejoice as the Dropbox team is at it once again with the release of a native iPhone app, allowing users to access their dropbox on the go.

For a while, Dropbox has provided users with an iPhone-optimized web site for accessing their contents on the go, but that left many users desiring more. Even with 3G speeds, web browsing through Mobile Safari is not as fast as an application that can read/write to its own resources and sync with a server.

Native App, Native Features

With a native application, the Dropbox team has managed to provide full access to your dropbox contents as well as several interesting iPhone-specific features.

One of these is the ability to take photos or video directly within the application (or use existing content on your device) and have those photos synced to your dropbox automatically. Dropbox then gives users quick access to generate an email with an appropriate link to view the content and share it with others.

The application itself is very usable and functions like most other native apps. As expected, you can delete items from your dropbox just as you would an email (swipe to delete). To prevent users from experiencing lag (as would have happened with a web app), the application caches a copy of the directory structure once you’ve viewed it at least once. (This later is re-synced if changes occur elsewhere.)

Typical application file types that are supported on the iPhone (images, PDFs, Keynotes, Pages documents, Word documents, etc.) are all supported within the application. Word documents even support copy and paste! If you have video files that are of a supported type (QuickTime and the like), they will also stream from your Dropbox. For those who love sharing content, just like the aforementioned photos, a mail icon in the lower left corner allows users to generate emails for any content stored on their dropbox.

Dropbox also supports a “Favorites” feature which allows you to sync your favorite files directly to your iPhone, even further speeding up response time. To favorite a file, simply tap the star icon at the bottom of the screen when viewing the file.

A Few Shortcomings

One little complaint that I have is that Dropbox uses its own picture browser. As such, when I load an image, I’m unable to pinch to zoom like what happens when browsing photos elsewhere on my phone. Support for the accelerometer is present, though, as rotating my phone allows the photo to reorient itself. I’m assuming this is just a bug and something the Dropbox team will work out in a future update.

Another interesting piece that is missing is the fact that Dropbox supports Growl on its desktop version. Though it may be annoying, some users may be wishing for push notifications for any updates to their dropbox. Again, as this is an initial release, this is something that could come in a later update.

Dropbox is a free download from the App Store but does require a valid Dropbox account. Users can sign up for a free Dropbox account (limited to 2GB), and there are paid options for greater storage (50GB or 100GB). As someone who has used Dropbox for over a year now, it’s a very robust solution for file syncing and in my tests, a lot more stable than MobileMe’s iDisk. If you’ve used Dropbox or the new Dropbox app and have thoughts on the matter, tell us your experience!

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Some of the more obvious choices (at least to this author) were Apple’s own Time Machine (free with OS X), SuperDuper! ($27.95), and Carbon Copy Cloner (free). It came as a surprise, however, that none of these options seemed to allow for targeting a Samba mounted shared server. Some Googling showed that Time Machine could manage it with a hack, but we were unsuccessful in making this solution work. So the search was on — what could we use as a backup solution to target a password authenticated Samba share?

We tried nearly everything. We Googled until we were blue in the face, but to no avail, which was surprising, as this can’t be an isolated need for Mac business users. So I raided my Applications folder (a mess of apps that I’ve toyed with over the years and never deleted) to see if I couldn’t find something. Luckily, I came across Econ Technologies’ ChronoSync, just lying in wait, right there in my own apps directory!

Chronosync offers the typical options for backing up or synchronizing anything on your Mac. Its superior flexibility of different source and target folders was ultimately what made it the go-to for our scenario at work. One of my favorite features is the ability to do a trial sync, which shows you what files will be copied and how, before committing a full-fledged backup operation. Add to this a myriad of settings for defining rules about what’s synchronized, when, and how, and this is one of the most powerful backup solutions I’ve seen for OS X.

If you’re in the market for a seriously capable and configurable backup solution on your Macintosh — and especially if you’re a business Mac user — I suggest you give Chronosync a try. The demo version limits the number of files that can be synced, but you’ll get a better idea of whether it’s worth you $40 for a single license or not.

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In “Share,” the focus is squarely on the new peer to peer connectivity introduced in OS 3.0 that allows iPhones in close proximity to discover each other for multiplayer gaming and sharing. The ad features three apps that use peer to peer in different ways. Mover (free, iTunes link) allows image sharing using an innovative and well-designed interface tailored to the iPhone’s touchscreen controls. Bump (free, iTunes link) allows contact info exchange, and is the app that won Apple’s billionth app downloaded contest. Finally, EA’s Scrabble ($4.99, iTunes link) demonstrates the iPhone’s multiplayer gaming capabilities.

“Travel” provides a selection of apps handy for the globe-trotting iPhone owner. I was expecting Apple to throw in at least one that takes advantage of the new compass features in the 3GS, but they clearly wanted to stick to apps that would work on both the 3G and the 3GS. Rick Steves’ Historic Paris Walk ($4.99, iTunes link) is the first featured app, which provides a guided, narrated tour of the celebrated European capital. Next up is Paris Metro ’09 ($4.99, iTunes link), which provides a transit map for the Paris underground. Finally, Freeverse’s Postman ($1.99, iTunes link) allows you to create and send custom postcards using photos in your album or that you take with your iPhone’s camera.

Apple clearly wants to focus more on what both currently available iPhone generations can do, rather than on the distinguishing features of the new 3GS. Since they’ve already tried to set up that distinction in the past, I think it’s a good strategy to just try to market a unified iPhone brand and let consumers make their own choices.

This series of ads continues to be a great way to show off the iPhone’s flexibility to consumers who may not be aware of its capabilities, but I’m surprised we haven’t yet seen a fan-made parody featuring a list of unfairly rejected or hamstringed apps, i.e., “Want to use Google Voice to connect with friends and family? There’s no app for that.” or “Want to stream your own, fairly acquired media from your home Slingbox over 3G whose usage you pay for? There’s no app for that.”

Someone make it happen. And please, Apple, by all means, continue to use Matt Costa’s Mr. Pitiful, because even just hearing the instrumental intro to that song has it stuck in my head for days, which is definitely a good thing.

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A number of different email clients are available for the Mac, but a new piece of software announced at MacWorld takes a new and different approach. Postbox is a new way to manage online communication, aiming to let you spend less time managing messages and more time getting things done. Built with powerful search and organization features, finding and browsing old messages is a simple process.

A video of the application in action can be seen at a recent presentation, and gives a great overview of what the app is capable of. The system supports all manner of email accounts and formats; IMAP, POP3, SMTP, Mobile Me, Gmail, RSS and Newsgroups. The software is noted to scale well, having been tested on databases of up to 30,000 messages.

The Main Interface

The main interface consists of folders, topics and search tabs. Folders and topics are used for categorizing and managing your email, and search tabs allow you to quickly view your contacts (generated based on all the messages you’ve received), images, attachments and links. Easy searching is central to the application and is given a great deal of attention.

The detail of the interface itself is impressive, feeling very much like a native Mac app. That said, it does feel slightly cluttered at times and there is undoubtedly room for further simplification in its look and feel.

The idea of ‘topics’ adds a different slant to traditional folder organization. These operate in a similar way to tags, and messages can be set to automatically be assigned a topic depending upon their contents or who they are from.

Conversations

As with many modern mail clients, the facility exists to display email messages in conversation threads. This is done in an accurate and visually appealing way, clearly displaying the details for each message along with a summary of who is involved with the conversation.

The sidebar area in a conversation is something I could see being very useful. It collects all the information which has so far been shared in a message thread: links, addresses, images, attachments — it’s all displayed in one place. This saves a great deal of time navigating back and forth through different messages.

Searching

While both Postbox and Mail.app are fantastic at cataloguing mail message content, Postbox takes displaying search results to a new and interesting level; emphasis is placed on context. When searching for a piece of text within a message, for instance, results show the matching results with a multi sentence abstract around it. Messages retain their original thread information, and searching for images shows all the related message information.

Sharing

With full integration to web services such as Flickr, Facebook, Twitter, and Delicious, sharing information received via email is remarkably simple. Right clicking a link, for instance, brings up a context menu of useful export options:

Getting content from various web services into a new message is just as simple — the sidebar lets you pull in information directly from search engines, reference sources, and social media sites. Integration with Google is present through the application, though for now there doesn’t seem to be any link to this being a revenue stream for the developers (as is the case with applications such as Firefox).

Conclusion

After trying Postbox I would seriously consider it as an alternative to the standard Mail.app shipping with OS X. It takes a step forward in terms of features, offering far greater functionality than Apple’s basic email client. That said, I do enjoy the simple interface of Mail.app and there are a number of minor bugs which will need ironing out before the release of Postbox.

Postbox is currently in Beta stage, and you’re able to register your details to be notified of new developments. This can all be done through the Postbox site.

What are your thoughts on the application. Do you feel that it will prove to be a solid competitor to Mail.app, or are people more likely to continue the gradual move towards web-based email services? I’m sure Apple will be watching the development of this application carefully, and I would not be surprised if several of the features it offers make an appearance in a future version of Mail.app.

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Apple front-ended their notebook event today with a look at the business side of things.  Their reported sales figures were impressive, having moved 2.5M Macs last quarter alone, and continuing their trend of growing at two to three times the rate of competitors in the same sector.

COO Tim Cook listed a number of reasons why Apple continues to put up impressive numbers:

1. Hardware quality (all Mac computers, basically)
2. Software quality (Leopard, iLife, iWork, etc.)
3. Compatibility (Boot Camp, virtualization software makes it easy to switch and/or integrate with existing infrastructure)
4. Vista (Microsoft’s poorly received OS scaring people to OS X)
5. Mac vs. PC ads (heightened brand recognition)
6. Brick-and-mortar retail growth (new Sydney, China stores; 400,00 visitors a day across all locations)

Cook then went on to talk about growth, where Apple has done better than their market for four years running, raising their market share from less than 10% to 17.5% in the U.S.  While that represents a significant gain, Apple’s most impressive figures are in the educational market segment, where they saw an improvement from 15% to 47% market share at one major university, and enjoy a 39% share overall, surpassing PC provider Dell.

Overall, Apple has already matched their sales figures for all of FY2007, moving 7.1M Macs between Q1 and Q3 2008.  The holiday season and today’s introduction of new models could see Q3′s numbers exceeded, despite the mostly depressed consumer electronics market, and will likely see Apple nearing or even passing the 10M mark by end of year.

Following today’s announcment, the price of Apple’s (AAPL) shares initially dropped, due likely to the absence of the $800 laptop predicted by some analysts.  Share price has gradually recovered since, and has stabilized at 104.08 at the time of this writing, down 5.60% from opening.

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