The Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations found that Apple kept US$74 billion from the IRS between 2009 and 2012. Apple is not charged, however, with breaking any laws.

Apple has published the full text of its upcoming testimony to the Senate congressional panel, which it's scheduled to make on Tuesday. Among those to testify include CEO Tim Cook. Cook spoke with The Washington Post last week about his ideas to repatriate some of those billions, and points out that the company is focused on creating jobs in the US and most likely will pay $7 billion in taxes to the US in 2013.

Apple releases Senate testimony as panel announces it avoided billions in taxes originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 20 May 2013 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Apple releases Senate testimony as panel announces it avoided billions in taxes originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 20 May 2013 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Asymco mobile industry analyst Horace Dediu is up to his number-crunching again, this time with numbers showing that Apple Stores continue to have the top retail revenues per visitor of any retailer in the US.

The first quarter of 2013 (Apple's second fiscal quarter) saw visitor growth of 7 percent and a new record revenue of US$57.60 per visitor. Average revenue per store was $13 million, a record-setting level for a non-holiday quarter.

Dediu noticed that the average visitors per store has steadied out at about 250,000 per store per quarter, and posits that number might be stagnant because fire regulations keep the stores from packing in even more visitors. Apple's employment in stores has increased as well to about 110 employees per store, climbing from less than half that level in 2007.

Apple's new retail strategy appears to be expanding US stores in size and opening new stores outside of the US. According to Dediu, that allows for growth in the number of visitors to the US Apple Stores and in "maintaining the brand's relationship with customers."

Asymco's Horace Dediu touts record Apple Store revenues in Q1 2013 originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 20 May 2013 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Asymco's Horace Dediu touts record Apple Store revenues in Q1 2013 originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 20 May 2013 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple's first dividend payment under the increased amount is scheduled to go down tomorrow. Shareholders with shares that were purchased on or before May 9, 2013 will be eligible for the increased quarterly dividend.

Since Apple first announced its increased quarterly dividend, along with a massive increase to its stock repurchasing plan, shares of the company have gone up by 7 percent.

Apple noted in a press release at the time that it is now one of the largest dividend payers in the world, "with annual payments of about $11 billion."

Apple's first $3.05 quarterly dividend payout scheduled for tomorrow originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 16 May 2013 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Apple's first $3.05 quarterly dividend payout scheduled for tomorrow originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 16 May 2013 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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In the world's largest smartphone market -- China -- Apple's share rose in the first quarter of 2013 to make the company the fifth largest vendor. Numbers from research firm Canalys show that the release of the iPhone 5 and price cuts on older iPhone models drove growth of Apple's sales.

Apple's share of the huge smartphone market pie is important to its bottom line -- while 27 million smartphones were shipped in the US during the first quarter, the number in China was a huge 82 million. That share is just 8 percent, well behind Samsung's 20 percent share, but is made up of much more expensive phones.

Phones shipped by number two through four vendors Yulong Computer Telecommunication Scientific, Huawei and Lenovo are usually low-cost models ranging in price from just 400 yuan to 700 yuan (US$64 to $114). Canalys analyst Nicole Peng noted that China Mobile, the largest carrier in the country with 726 million subscribers, has helped drive the large sales volume by heavy promotion of new phones that work on its 3G network.

Peng says that Apple will need to release a less expensive version of the iPhone to grab more market share in China. The iPhone 5 starts at 5,288 yuan ($863) and an 8 GB iPhone 4 goes for 3,088 yuan ($504). Peng notes that a 2000 yuan ($323) model would appeal to customers who want an Apple product, but just can't afford the higher price tag.

China's smartphone shipments rose 156 percent year over year in the first quarter, making the country a key market for Apple and other smartphone manufacturers.

Apple takes fifth spot in Chinese smartphone market originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 09 May 2013 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Apple takes fifth spot in Chinese smartphone market originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 09 May 2013 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Despite the media's best attempts to make it appear that Apple is in dire financial straits, Fortune today reported that the company has made it into the top 10 of the Fortune 500 list.

Apple arrives in the top 10 in the number six spot, replacing HP (now No. 15) as the leading tech company. Here's the amazing thing -- just last year, Apple was listed as No. 17 in the Fortune 500. Two years ago Apple was a distant No. 35, the spot now occupied by Microsoft.

The ranking of the Fortune 500 is based on revenues, with Wal-Mart Stores at the top of the list with 2012 revenues of US$469.2 billion. Three US oil companies -- Exxon Mobil, Chevron and Phillips 66 -- made up the second through fourth positions respectively on the list, with Warren Buffett's investment firm Berkshire Hathaway just ahead of Apple in the No. 5 spot.

Apple's revenues for 2012 were $156.5 billion with profits of $41.7 billion. That profit figure was exceeded only by Exxon Mobil, which, as of today, has a market capitalization of "only" $406 billion compared to Apple's $433 billion.

Apple soars into Fortune 500's top 10 originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 06 May 2013 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Apple soars into Fortune 500's top 10 originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 06 May 2013 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple 2.0's Philip Elmer-DeWitt put it the best in the subhead for his Apple Earnings Smackdown article this morning when he said "Apple management may have found a way to tame the wild beasts of Wall Street." What he was referring to was the fact that most Wall Street analysts were actually quite close on their estimates of how Apple performed in the second quarter of its fiscal year, thanks to new guidance rules that had been announced by CFO Peter Oppenheimer in January. The Smackdown is a quarterly roll call of analyst estimates and how well various institutional and independent analysts fared in their educated guesses of Apple performance.

On the Q1 2012 earnings call, Oppenheimer stated that the company would no longer give analysts conservative forecasts, or as Elmer-DeWitt put it: "Rather than tell them what the company was reasonably confident it could achieve the following quarter, it would offer a range of guidance that reflected what it believed it was likely to achieve (emphasis is Elmer-DeWitt's)."

Oppenheimer's pronouncement appears to have been embraced by the financial wizards, as 26 of 62 analysts picked the March quarter revenue and earnings within 2.5 percent. That's a vast improvement over the 2011 estimates for the same quarter that were off by a combined average of 11 percent. And while independent analysts used to do a much better job of making accurate estimates than the pros, the difference was essentially non-existant this time around.

Perhaps between better guidance from Apple, closer estimates by analysts and the company's agressive dividend payout and stock repurchase plans, Apple CEO Tim Cook and Oppenheimer may have developed a method to sooth the nerves of Wall Street and hopefully halt the recent slide in the value of the company's share price.

More realistic guidance from Apple results in better analyst estimates originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 24 Apr 2013 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

More realistic guidance from Apple results in better analyst estimates originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 24 Apr 2013 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple Q2 2013 Earnings Call liveblog originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 23 Apr 2013 16:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Apple Q2 2013 Earnings Call liveblog originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 23 Apr 2013 16:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple's own guidance for Q2 2013 expected revenues in the range of $41-43 billion, with gross margins in the range of 37.5 to 38.5 percent. Wall Street analysts were in the same general range, with institutional investors looking at an average earnings number of $41.82 billion and independent analysts a bit more bullish at $43.75 billion. Results for the same quarter last year were $39.19 billion in revenue, earnings per share of $12.30 and a gross margin of 47.4 percent.

Actual results for the quarter were as follows:

• Revenue: $43.6 billion (beat expectations and institutional investors)
• Earnings Per Share: $10.09
• Gross Margin: 37.5 percent (met expectations, did not meet street expectations)

Tim Cook was quoted as saying, "Our teams are hard at work on some amazing new hardware, software and services, and we are very excited about the products in our pipeline."

Apple is providing the following guidance for its fiscal 2013 third quarter:

• revenue between $33.5 billion and $35.5 billion
• gross margin between 36 percent and 37 percent
• operating expenses between $3.85 billion and $3.95 billion
• other income/(expense) of $300 million
• tax rate of 26 percent

Join us at 4:50 PM ET today for a liveblog of the earnings call.

Apple reports Q2 2013 earnings originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 23 Apr 2013 16:34:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Apple reports Q2 2013 earnings originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 23 Apr 2013 16:34:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Anybody who has been watching Apple's share prices since September 2012 would think that the company is in the midst of a huge crisis. Shares of AAPL have dropped from a high of over US$700 a share to around $400 now, and the financial press is sure that the company is doomed. Abdel Ibrahim, co-founder of The Tech Block and a technical analysis trader for about 10 years, points out that based on a look at historical data, large upswings in AAPL share price followed by swift downturns are actually quite normal for the company.

Ibrahim based his analysis on what is called Fibonacci retracements, a method of technical analysis that uses "the idea that markets will retrace a predictable portion of a move, after which they will continue to move in the original direction." In other words, the share price will rise significantly, then fall back to a lower level before starting to rise again.

Ibrahim notes:

"Most technical traders use the 50 percent and 61.8 percent Fibonacci levels to predict where a market may find support or resistance. For example, if a stock went from $10 to $20, and then started to significantly pull back, many technical traders would expect that stock to have a lot of support somewhere in between $14 - $15 (roughly 50 percent to 61.8 percent of the $10 move). In my personal analysis (emphasis is Ibrahim's) I have found this to be true nearly 70 percent of the time."

Ibrahim then follows with AAPL chart examples demonstrating this recurring trend. It happened between late 1997 and late 1999, in 2005 into 2006, then late 2006 through early 2008. Since that time, AAPL has been following the same trend and is currently on the downward path it has followed so many times before.

As Ibrahim notes, the charts he's created aren't meant to stir investors to buy AAPL. Instead:

"It's to tell you to ignore the bullshit headlines that seem to be flooding the internet and newspapers. They come from analysts. Analysts with agendas to either inflate the price of a stock they own or deflate the price of a stock they want. ... Apple, in my eyes, is still a very good company. Time will tell if I'm right or wrong."

If you'd like to hear what some of those analysts with agendas are asking Apple executives, be sure to join us at 4:50 PM ET today for our liveblog of the company's Q2 2013 earnings call.

[Via The Loop]

A history of Apple's share price originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 23 Apr 2013 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

A history of Apple's share price originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 23 Apr 2013 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The call is scheduled at 5 PM ET today and our liveblog will begin at 4:50 PM ET. If you're an IRC user, we'll have a chat room set up on server irc.freenode.net, chat room #tuaw so you can converse with the TUAW team and others. You can listen to a live audio stream of the event here.

Join us for a TUAW liveblog of the Apple Q2 2013 earnings call originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 23 Apr 2013 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Join us for a TUAW liveblog of the Apple Q2 2013 earnings call originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 23 Apr 2013 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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TUAW has recently reported several times about Apple's efforts to tap the huge market for iPhones in India. Now the Times of India is reporting that Apple's net profit for the India business unit has skyrocketed 431 percent year over year.

As the newspaper explains, these figures do not take into account Apple's recent agressive marketing strategies, and that it may be that the company became aware of the vast potential for sales in India during two strong years in 2011-12. Now the company is "chasing volumes and looking at the numbers game," according to Manasi Yadav of IDC.

Market research firm Canalys notes that iPhone shipments to India have risen threefold in just six months. At the beginning of that period back in September 2012, Apple began advertising the iPhone extensively on the Indian subcontinent and appointed two retail distributors. Just a few weeks ago, the company started a buy-back scheme that resulted in a 300 percent increase in sales in just one week.

Canalys analyst Jessica Kwee was quoted as saying that "Apple India should generate US$1 billion sales between April 2013 and March 2014," a number that should cheer the hearts of Apple executives wondering why the company's share price has plummeted to $400 today.

Apple India sees iPhone boost to bottom line originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 17 Apr 2013 21:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Apple India sees iPhone boost to bottom line originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 17 Apr 2013 21:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It must be tough to be a market research firm these days. IDC released preliminary information of PC shipments for the first calendar quarter of 2013 today, showing the market to be dismal with an overall decline in PC shipments of almost 13 percent in the US year-over-year and Mac shipments apparently down 7.5 percent in the same period. On the other hand, Gartner's figures -- also released today -- show an 9.6 percent year-over-year decline in the US PC market, and shipments of Macs actually growing 7.4 percent in the same period.

With Apple's fiscal second quarter earnings report coming up in less than two weeks, the conflicting numbers are sure to make financial analysts reach for the bottle of Jim Beam hidden in a desk drawer. As if the numbers from IDC and Gartner weren't perplexing enough, 9to5Mac points out that NPD Group's numbers show sales (not shipments) of Macs jumping a whopping 14 percent.

Who's right? We'll all have to wait until the afternoon of April 23 to see the actual numbers from Apple. If history repeats itself once again, we're sure to see stellar numbers from Apple for most product lines, followed by a precipitous drop in AAPL's share price. You can join us for all the fun during our regular earnings call liveblog at 5 PM ET on April 23, 2013.

IDC: Mac shipments down. Gartner: Mac shipments up. originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 11 Apr 2013 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

IDC: Mac shipments down. Gartner: Mac shipments up. originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 11 Apr 2013 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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According to a Reuters story today, Australian officials are planning to have large corporations like Apple and Google disclose their tax arrangements in an attempt to crack down on alleged tax avoidance by multinationals. Australian Assistant Treasurer David Bradbury said that the "increasingly borderless global economy means big firms often have no tax liability in a country."

How do corporations manage to avoid paying taxes even in countries where they have a major local presence? Some multinationals have been accused of moving income to countries like Ireland (with a corporate tax rate of 12.5 percent) where tax rates aren't as high as those in Australia (30 percent). The new Australian measures will require about 2,000 companies with annual revenues greater than A$100 million (about US$105 million) to report their tax details to the government for publishing.

Similar measures have been discussed by the Group of 20 wealthy nations to shut down loopholes that are estimated to cause a loss of more than A$1 billion annually in tax revenue in Australia alone.

Australia to have Apple, Google disclose tax arrangements originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 03 Apr 2013 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Australia to have Apple, Google disclose tax arrangements originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 03 Apr 2013 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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As writer John Paczkowski notes in an AllThingsD article today, iTunes was originally "conceived as a low-margin 'break-even' operation intended to drive hardware sales" -- in particular sales of iPods. Now that the iTunes Store is used to sell more than just songs and videos, it's turning into a "significant profit center for the company".

Paczkowski was commenting on numbers from Asymco analyst Horace Dediu, who notes that now that Apple has folded its in-house software group into iTunes, Apple software is having "significant implications for iTunes margins." The software, including items like iWork, iLife, Final Cut Pro, Aperture and more, has much higher profit margins than traditional iTunes items like music, books, video, and apps.

Dediu deduced that Apple sold about US$3.6 billion worth of its software products in 2012, and that profit margins for software is usually about 50 percent. If that's the case for Apple -- and Dediu is usually correct in his assumptions -- then iTunes is generating operating margins of about 15 percent on gross revenue. That's about $2 billion in profit for 2012, or as Paczkowski so eloquently put it, one "hell of a way to break even."

iTunes is more than earning its keep originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 25 Mar 2013 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

iTunes is more than earning its keep originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 25 Mar 2013 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Mac sales were down for the holiday 2012 quarter due to supply constraints on the new iMac models, but NPD Group data is showing that sales are up 14 percent year over year for January and February.

According to Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster, that growth is due to improved availability of the all-in-one iMacs that began shipping in November 2012. Munster believes that total global Mac sales for the March quarter will be down 5 percent year over year, but provided some positive spin in saying that there's room for "some slight upside."

Munster noted that iMac sales are less impacted by cannibalization by sales of iPads, so the "vast majority of the y/y unit decline in December was likely supply." Those supply issues were apparently caused by problems with a new screen lamination processed used in the ultra-thin late 2012 iMacs.

Mac sales up as iMac supply improves originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 19 Mar 2013 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Mac sales up as iMac supply improves originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 19 Mar 2013 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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There's an old saying that "A rising tide lifts all boats," but nowhere has the truth of that saying been demonstrated more than in Berkeley, Calif., where the opening of the Fourth Street Apple Store in 2011 quadrupled sales tax revenues for the district in which the store is located.

That quadrupling is just in the sales tax category in which the Apple Store is placed -- "furniture and appliances" -- but the impact of the opening is apparent even when all of the various categories are shown together.

As pointed out on ifoAppleStore.com, it appears that the Apple Store was placed into that category specifically to disguise its contribution to overall tax revenues. The website did a quick calculation based on the revenue trend and determines that the store will probably have about US$38.4 million in sales for the first quarter of 2013, more than twice the per-store average for all Apple Stores.

A PDF copy of the City of Berkeley economic report is available for viewing here.

Apple Store boosts revenues for entire shopping district originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 07 Mar 2013 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Apple Store boosts revenues for entire shopping district originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 07 Mar 2013 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Apple shareholders' meeting was held in Cupertino earlier today, and CNBC has a full liveblog of all of the proceedings. There wasn't a lot of hard news out of the meeting, as most of it was taken up with bureaucratic goings-on, including the approval of a certain accounting firm, a few votes on executive payments and the defeat of a proposal to create a Human Rights board committee at the company. All of Apple's directors were re-elected, and Tim Cook got a 99.1 percent approval rating from investors there.

After the meeting, Cook took some questions from shareholders and answered them. He agreed that Apple is just as disappointed as investors in "where the stock trades now versus a few months ago -- but we're focused on the long term." Cook crowed about Apple's huge growth so far, and promised that "obviously we're looking at new categories -- we don't talk about them, but we're looking at them."

Finally, Cook gave an update on Apple's new campus, saying that the work is ongoing, but it's proving to be a much bigger project than expected. Last we heard, the project was set to be all done in 2015, but Cook now says that, "I project that we will move in, in 2016." You can read through all of the notes of the meeting on CNBC's site.

[via MacRumors]

From the Apple shareholders' meeting: Approvals, 'new categories' and another campus delay originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 27 Feb 2013 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

From the Apple shareholders' meeting: Approvals, 'new categories' and another campus delay originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 27 Feb 2013 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Good Technology released its Q4 2012 Device Activation Report (PDF) yesterday, and the news is good for Apple in terms of its dominance of in the enterprise market. But there are some dark clouds on the horizon for the computer company in the form of Android tablets, which are making inroads into large companies.

Good tracks more than 4,000 customers in every major industry, with half of the Fortune 100 being represented as well. The report shows that Apple had the top five spots for device activations in the fourth quarter of 2012 and more than 90 percent of all tablets activated by enterprises were iPads.

Not surprisingly, the most popular device in big business was the iPhone 5, which accounted for 32 percent of all activations for Q4. The iPhone 5 was followed by the iPhone 4S, iPhone 4, third-generation iPad and second-generation iPad in terms of total activations, with the top Android device -- the Samsung Galaxy S III -- coming in at the sixth slot.

iPads completely dominate the tablet market at this time, accounting for 93.2 percent of all enterprise tablet activations in Q4. Android tablets are starting to make inroads, however -- in the first quarter of 2012, they only accounted for 2.7 percent of all activations with that number growing to 6.8 percent by Q4.

The full report also provides a breakdown of iPad activations by industry, showing that the devices are tremendously popular in the financial services sector.

[via The Loop]

Good news: Apple dominating enterprise activations originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 26 Feb 2013 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Good news: Apple dominating enterprise activations originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 26 Feb 2013 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Asymco analyst Horace Dediu does a very good job of dissecting the Apple financial data released publicly to discover trends and tidbits of information. Today Dediu looked into Apple's international retail strategy and pulled out some tasty nuggets about Apple Stores.

Apple's rate of store openings is surprisingly slow, but Dediu goes on to point out that sales outside of Apple's retail channel are a much higher portion of the total than they were in 2007. The percentage of sales from Apple Stores has actually dropped from 17 percent in 2007 to 12 percent in 2012.

Dediu points out that while, currently, most Apple Stores are in the Americas, the company's strategy is to open more stores in other markets. Whereas almost 80 percent of store openings in 2007 were in the US, that number shrunk to about 15 percent in 2012. Dediu notes that, "It would seem reasonable therefore to expect that the priority for most, if not all, future openings should be outside the US to address the current sales/retail presence imbalance and to accomodate the bulk of future growth."

A look at Apple's international retail strategy originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 25 Feb 2013 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

A look at Apple's international retail strategy originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 25 Feb 2013 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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What with Forbes speculating that Apple leaked "iWatch" plans out of desperation and the recent counterintuitive drop in share price after the company's last stellar earnings report, one would think that Apple's on the verge of going out of business. Strategy Analytics has new data out countering that notion, showing that the iPhone 5 and iPhone 4S are the top-selling smartphones worldwide.

In the fourth quarter of 2012, Apple shipped 27.4 million iPhone 5 handsets and 17.4 million units of the iPhone 4S worldwide. The next most popular single model of smartphone? Samsung's Galaxy S3, with 15.4 million units sold in the fourth quarter. That's right -- the 2011 iPhone 4S alone sold two million units more than the the Galaxy S3, and had an 8 percent share of the smartphone market.

Add sales of the iPhone 5, and Apple's two most recent models accounted for 21 percent of all smartphone sales worldwide. That doesn't even count the iPhone 4, which Apple is offering for free with new service contracts.

It's expected that Samsung will fire back with the rumored Galaxy S4 in the next couple of months to try to counteract the Apple juggernaut. By that point, it's almost certain that we'll start hearing about the iPhone 5S or 6...

iPhone 5, 4S top selling smartphones worldwide originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 20 Feb 2013 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

iPhone 5, 4S top selling smartphones worldwide originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 20 Feb 2013 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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