Apple (AAPL) Now No. 4 Mobile Phone Vendor

Here is your daily Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL ) stock news and rumors for Oct. 29, 2010. Good news for Apple shareholders today as the IDC reports that Apple has become the No. 4 mobile phone —  not just smartphone — manufacturer in the world, bumping Research in Motion down to No. 5 and knocking Sony Ericsson down to No. 6.  Meanwhile, Steve Jobs’ company continues to ramp up its presence in among enterprise customers as distributor Ingram Micro begins offering the iPad. And speaking of its financial successes, Apple has finally surpassed Microsoft in quarterly revenue. Apple Becomes No. 4 Mobile Phone Vendor, Surpasses Research in Motion:   Apple has broken into the top five list of global mobile-phone vendors for the very first time,  according to new results from the IDC Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker reported by BusinessWire.  The category is all mobile phones, not just smartphones or connected devices. In the third quarter of 2010, Apple finally surged ahead of BlackBerry manufacturer Research in Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM ) and displaced Sony Ericsson (NYSE: SNE , NASDAQ: ERIC) from the top five.  Apple still trails Nokia (NYSE: NOK ), Samsung   and LG Electronics. IDC senior research analyst Kevin Restivo stressed that  Apple’s 90.5% increase in year-on-year sales in the third quarter of 2010 demonstrated the increased importance of smartphones in the global mobile phone market. While Apple beat  Research in Motion, RIMM also saw impressive growth, with a 45.9% year-on-year jump in sales during the same period. Some 340.5 million mobile phones were shipped between July and September 2010 compared with 297.1 million in the year prior. iPad Sales Grow in Enterprise Markets Says Distributor: Apple distributor Ingram Micro (NYSE: IM ) told Reuters this week that Apple has given the company the OK  to begin selling the iPad to businesses as enterprise markets show increasing interest in the popular tablet computer. Ingram Micro CEO Greg Spierkl said that Apple itself has been surprised by the opportunity for business to business sales of the iPad considering that the device was targeted predominantly at consumers when it launched earlier this year. Since Apple announced quarterly earnings, Apple executives have emphasized the iPad’s success with enterprise buyers. Apple claimed that more than 65% of the Fortune 100, including companies like General Electric (NYSE: GE ) subsidiary NBC Universal and Hyatt Hotels (NYSE: H ), have begun using the iPad in daily operations. Apple also announced a new partnership with Unisys (NYSE: UIS ) to provide service to enterprise clients. If iPad sales continue to grow as predicted, hitting more than 14 million units sold by the end of the calendar year, it’s possible that Apple will take a dominant position in the business sector before competitors like Hewlett-Packard (NASDAQ: HPQ ) can even get their tablets to market. Microsoft Falls Behind Apple in Third-Quarter Revenues: Last summer, Apple was declared the most valuable technology company — largest by market capitalization – on the planet, finally surpassing Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT ) after a decade of growth thanks to its line of successful portable computing devices like the MacBook, iPod, iPhone, and most recently, the iPad.  Apple did not, however, pull in more revenue than Microsoft in the April-through-June quarter. The same can’t be said of the July-to-September period, though, as Apple’s revenue finally surged ahead of Microsoft’s. Reporting $20.34 billion in revenue, Apple trounced Microsoft, which pulled in just $16.20 billion during the third quarter of 2010. Not only did Apple beat Microsoft but it also outdid Microsoft’s best-ever quarterly performance of $19 billion. As of this writing, Anthony Agnello did not own a position in any of the stocks named here.
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