Not only did more smartphones sell this quarter than ever before, but Apple was responsible for all three of top sellers — iPhone 4S, iPhone 4, and iPhone 3GS

IDC has released a new report showing overall smartphone shipments grew a staggering 54.7 percent in the fourth quarter of 2011 thanks to overwhelming demand for the iPhone 4S. Rising popularity has helped push the iPhone 4S to become the number one selling smartphone in the world. Not only did Apple absolutely own the top selling spot, but they owned the top 3 spots as well. That’s right, second only to the iPhone 4S in popularity was the iPhone 4, followed up by the iPhone 3GS according to NPD Group.

Apple climbed back into the market leadership position with the launch of its iPhone 4S worldwide, and in the process it reached a new shipment volume record for itself and for the entire industry for a single quarter. Although the iPhone 4S disappointed some detractors by lacking 4G LTE connectivity or a different size screen, demand was high for the device. In addition, the combination of holiday seasonality, the delay in product launch from 3Q to 4Q, and the addition of multiple mobile operators helped drive volumes higher.

This comes after some voiced concern over setting expectations too high for the iPhone 4S, and many worried whether it was a significant enough upgrade to attract customers in large numbers. A better 8MP camera with a faster Apple A5 chip, a more reliable antenna, and Siri seem to have been more than enough to drive sales.

Something to watch for as well — Vendors shipped a total of 157.8 million smartphones worldwide last quarter and one out of every 3 mobile phones shipped was a smartphone. This shows a continuation of the trend that should, in short order, lead to the day when all phones are smartphones.

How many iPhones will Apple be able to sell then?

Source: IDC, Fortune, NPD

Apple is holding their Q1 2011 financial results call today at 2pm PST, 5pm EST. Q1 covers the holidays, traditionally Apple’s strongest quarter, and this year should see another record being broken for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad sales.

Juxtaposed against the news of Steve Jobs taking another medical leave of absence, the stock market today and the Q&A following the call itself, could be a mixed bag of hurt for Apple. Numbers vs. emotion, we’ll see what wins out.

• www.apple.com/quicktime/qtv/earningsq111

Quasi-live updates of the call after the break!

• Peter Oppenheimer (PO) talking about Macs.
• PO talking about Mac App Store
• iPod sales down, iPod touch sales 50%, continues to grow. 70% share remains the same. Still top selling in most countries.
• 16.2 million iPhones. Handset and accessories $10.7 billion. $10.1 billion iPhones alone. 185 carriers in 90 countries. Strong growth, Asia and Japan doubling.
• 88 Fortune 100, 60% of FT Europe now testing or deploying iPhone.
• CIOs continue to add iPhone to approved devices. Wells Fargo, ADM, Dupont, Staples, Starbucks, Nissan, Standard Charter, Dannon and others have made it available.
• 7.3 million iPads. Over 3 million increase. 43 countries. CIO’s adding iPad at amazing rate. 80% of Fortune 100 deploying or piloting. JP Morgan, Cardinal Health, Well Fargo, ADC, Dupont.
• $4.4 billion in iPads
• 165 million iOS devices sold to date
• Pleased with iAds, expanded to other countries.
• Apple Stores still doing great. China highest traffic, highest revenue. 323 stores worldwide. 87 outside US. $12 million avg. per store. 69% increase.
• 75.7 million visitors. Increase 49%.
• $59 billion in cash
• Q&A time! Tim Cook is on (TC)
• Q: How to ensure sufficient iPhones for Verizon?
• TC: Made bold move going to 14 million production, now gone to 16 million. Working on increasing further. Takes time. Thrilled to offer it to Verizon, existing and new customers. Going to get into as many hands as possible.
• Q: How comfortable are you with iPhone, iPad supply. Shortages?
• TC: iPad increased dramatically last quarter. Expanded to 46 countries. Added 20 during quarter. Adding 15 more in January. Confident. Feel good. Demand is high. Demand from Verizon will be huge. Doesn’t want to give prediction.
• Q: Sequential growth is impressive, what’s driving that? How will it be sustained?
• TC: Identified China as top priority, put enormous energy into China. Results staggering. (Greater China as region, PRC, HK, Taiwan). $2.6 billion last quarter. Up 4x. Korea also very good market. Driven by iPhone, iPad. Other Asian countries doing well. Japan not in segment. By itself 83% year over year. Stunning. Placing more resource there. Looking for expansion.
• Q: How long is roadmap? 1 year, 2 year? (Trying to find out how far Jobs has been involved).
• TC: Apple magic. Don’t want anyone copying it. Apple is doing best work ever. Steve has made excellence a habit. Feel very confident. Have low market share of handsets, huge market. Believe iPad market is huge as well. In fast moving markets. Have best products they’ve ever done. Confident.
• Q: Could have sold more, how many?
• PO: Can’t run experiment both ways. Couldn’t make enough. Would have loved more.
• Q: Commodities?
• TC: DRAM favorable. Metals increasing. NAND, batteries, ODDs, LCDs, most others in supply/demand balance. Design components they believe they can innovate beyond market. A4 chip is example. Didn’t feel like they had to build fab. Good options for doing that. Focused on design.
• TC: Signed deal with NAND Flash suppliers because anticipated importance, wanted to secure supply. Fantastic use of Apple cash, Look for more of these. Identified another area. Come to agreements PO talked about. Pre-payments, capitol, focused on area they feel is strategic. Not going into details.
• Q: iPad different on historical margin pattern?
• TC: Number of factors. Don’t guide on product level on margins.
• PO: Good track record on lowering costs. Strong gross margins. Happy.
• Q: Other tablets
• TC: Android tablets shipping today, OS not designed for tablet. Google has said that. Not Apple dig. Makes size less than reasonable, won’t provide real tablet experience. Scaled up smartphone. Bizarre product. Enormous percentage will select iPad. Next generation of Android tablets. Nothing shipping yet. Doesn’t know. Generally lack performance specs, timing. Today they’re vapor. Will assess when they come out. Apple not sitting still. Have huge first mover advantage. Incredible user experience. iTunes, App Store, ecosystem. Very confident entering fight with anyone.
• Q: Moving to multiple carriers ASP impact, other large carriers without iPhone, CMDA based? More?
• TC: Not releated to US or specific carrier: Always looking, assessing.
• TC: Signed multi-year non-exclusive deal with AT&T. Happy to have 2 carriers in US.
• TC: No contractual exclusivity anywhere in the world anymore.
• iPad cannibalization of Macs?
• TC: Yes but also halo effect. Look at the growth.
• Q: iPad influencing Mac?
• TC: No “not invented here” in Apple groups. Very low walls. Great ideas are great ideas. Uses MacBook Air as example, instant on like iPad.
• TC: Steve had phenomenal insight. MacBook Air is how to compete with iPad.
• Q: iPad new to the brand? Any numbers?
• TC: We collect it, of course. iPhone numbers been for a while. Doesn’t need numbers. Look at Asia numbers. Incredible.
• Q: Established tablet market vs. emerging, more about consumption vs. creation?
• TC: Tablet market large everywhere.
• Q: Supply again
• PO: Working hard to increase, won’t come overnight
• Q: Any other observations on Android and BlackBerry since Steve spoke last call?
• TC: Could have sold more iPhones. Suggests they grew faster than market. Working around the clock to meet supply. Increasing countries and carriers. Enormous enterprise traction. Mind-blowing. Highest customer ratings in industry. Largest App Store. Now sold over 160 million iOS devices.
• TC: Integrated approach provides better experience than fragmented approach. Fragmented app stores will make users pull their hair out. Updates will be hard to track. iOS is off charts on percentage of people who have latest OS version compared to other guys. Verizon will help Apple in the US. Just repeated Steve. Nut nut is their integrated approach is better for the end user, takes out the complexity. Doesn’t make user a system integrated. Doesn’t know many users who want to be SI. More iPhones they can get out, the more people love them. Think they have bright future. Same thing about iPad. Same set of issues. Difference is they’ve been running 3 quarters without any significant competition. iPad also off the charts. None of that new. Apple is in a very good position.
• TC: Thanks to iOS SDK can make an app and run your whole business off an iPad. Numbers incredible. iPad started shipping in April, already up to 80% of largest companies deploying or piloting. Unheard of at least in his dealings. Usually much slower, more cautious. Seen productivity, creativity advantage.
• That’s it! Thanks everyone!

Apple today announced their Q1 2010 financial results, covering the all-important holiday quarter, with 8.7 million iPhones sold, and a 55% increase in iPod touch sales. Total revenue was $15.68 billion, and cash-on-hand is now approaching a whopping 39.8 billion! Says CEO, Steve Jobs:

“If you annualize our quarterly revenue, it’s surprising that Apple is now a $50+ billion company,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “The new products we are planning to release this year are very strong, starting this week with a major new product that we’re really excited about.”

Way to iTablet tease us there, big fella.

During the conference call that followed, CFO, Peter Oppenheimer and COO, Tim Cook revealed:

• 17 new carriers for the iPhone, including Bell Canada, Telus Canada, Orange France, China Unicom, Korea
• iPhone “very strong” in Japan, Australia, UK, Germany
• Business users ranked iPhone #1 in satisfaction according to JD Power
• 70% of Fortune 100 businesses piloting or deploying iPhone
• New accounting methods mean $25 of iPhone revenue deferred for “updates”
• Apple defended AT&T, said they have higher broadband usage than any other carrier, great experience for many customers, and have shared with Apple plans to improve problem cities
• 2.7 million iPhones in channel, including in-transit, invoiced to carriers, demos.
• 200,000 iPhones activated in China. Ramping slowly to ensure customer experience.
• Nothing on Nokia lawsuit.
• 90% of iPhone Apps approved in 14 days. Apple wants to protect privacy, prevent porn, defend children. Most frequent cause of rejection is bugs in app.
• Cook: Noise about App Store frustration may be higher than reality (orly?)
• Could anything equal Mac, iPod, iPhone for Apple? Wait for Wednesday!
• iPhone 3GS features accelerated corporate adoption (hardware encryption?)
• Adding carriers in existing countries earned incremental growth.
• Quattro Wireless was acquired to provide developers, especially those who develop free apps, a seamless way to earn money.
• iTunes/App Store still run just above break even, Apple reinvests revenue to maintain and improve customer experience as it scales.
• Japan iPhone growth 400%, Asia Pac iPhone growth 500%
• On Google: Apple competes with Google in some areas, works with them in others.

For more from the conference call, check out TiPb’s live coverage!

Apple will be releasing their Q1, 2010 financial results later today, and following up with their traditional conference call at 2pm PT/5pm ET/10pm GT. A Q&A with analysts will follow (and we hope they’ve all taken Matt Deatherage’s advice).

TiPb will be covering the event live, right here in this very post. So, to observe, comment, and enjoy along with us, bookmark this page and come back and join us at start time!

One of our favorite Bluetooth headsets, the BlueAnt Q1, has just gotten an major firmware update that enables A2DP audio streaming along with some other fixes and small functions.

• The Q1 now includes A2DP audio streaming, so you can listen to music, podcasts, and hear turn-by-turn direction information from a phone GPS application. If your phone or GPS application supports A2DP simply start playing music or launch the GPS application and the audio will automatically transfer to the Q1.
• In response to customer feedback BlueAnt made it even easier to end a call: now you end calls with a single click of the BlueAnt button.
• Double-clicking the BlueAnt button during a call now switches between Voice Isolation Standard and Max.

The update process for your Q1 headset to firmware version 8.19 is a quick and painless. Simply head on over to BlueAnt’s website, download the updater tool, and following the directions. The update currently can only be done on Windows machines with an Mac update tool coming soon.

[Via WMExperts]

The BlueAnt Q1 voice controlled Bluetooth headset for iPhone [$109.95 - TiPb Store] is the higher end version of the BlueAnt V1 I tested last month, and came away impressed with. How impressed? It’s a piece of hardware I would recommend it to anyone in the market for a new bluetooth headset. Now that the good folks over at BlueAnt were nice enough to send me the Q1, will I make the switch? For all of the juicy details follow us after the break!

Similar to the BlueAnt V1, this new and improved Q1 boasts many accessories in the package. Along with the sleek gunmetal voice-controled headset you get large and small earbuds, ear hook, USB cable, AC adapter, and a quick start guide.

In my V1 review I mentioned that the Q1′s improvements may not warrant the higher price to upgrade. I can now honestly say I was wrong. From a first glance, the Q1 looks much more visually appealing to the eye but it does not stop there. The Q1 measures 2.16 inches long while weighing in at .30 oz without the optional ear hook attached and .38 oz with it attached. These specifications help make this headset, hands-down, the most comfortable headset I have ever used. Even with the ear hook attached I can easily go a full day wearing it and not feel any discomfort. With the different sized ear buds and the ear hook you are bound to find a great comfortable fit. The controls are kept simple, you have the volume up/down buttons and the BlueAnt button which acts as power on/off, answer/end calls, and enables voice command.

Now lets get to the good stuff – performance. The BlueAnt Q1 simply out shines all of the competition I’ve tested in the performance category in every way except for battery life. My biggest complaint is that the headset gets 4 hours of talk time and 100 hours of standby. Sure that does not sound bad but when the Q1′s older sibling, the V1, gets one more hour talk time and 100 hours more of standby time… it makes me wonder how BlueAnt dropped the ball on that one. Moving on let’s break down the key features.

• Voice Control with the BlueGenie™ Voice User interface
• Multipoint technology allowing you to connect two handsets at once
• Voice Isolation Technology
• Revolutionary Noise Suppression and Echo Cancellation
• Custom internal wind-shields reduce wind noise to whisper

The first thing I noticed with the improved voice control present on the Q1 was speed dialing. On the V1 I found voice speed dialing worked a bit less than perfectly. I’m happy to report that on the Q1 it works flawlessly. You simply go by your favorite contacts stored within your iPhone. A simple tap of the BlueAnt button and a voice command of “Speed dial 1″ will call the first contact stored within your favorites. Not only can you use voice commands for speed dialing but other things such as checking your battery life, answering/ending phone calls, calling back the last incoming call, redialing your last outgoing call, etc… A great feature that 99% of the time understood what I was saying and completed the task.

Another feature, called multipoint technology, is one that some of you out there can appreciate while others will have no use for. Multipoint technology simply means that you can connect two phones to the Q1 at the same time and answer whichever one happens to be ringing. A nice feature for those of you dual-wielding 2 phones such as your beloved iPhone and say your Blackberry. I know with my previous headsets it would be a pain to have to repair the headset to another one of my phones so this is a welcomed feature.

The biggest improvement I have noticed coming from the V1 to this Q1 is all of the voice isolation technologies that are being implemented within the headset have been improved. When I was in a room with complete silence the person on the other end of the line would hear me crystal clear. The big test was how would it perform in a noisy situation. I am happy to report it faired pretty well. While the BlueAnt Q1 does not use a similar technology to the Jawbone’s noise assassin, the DSP technology in the Q1 does it’s job extremely well. The headset places all ambient noises and makes them sound very distant while raising the sound level of the users voice. Not a single caller complained about not being able to understand me or hear me loud and clear. The biggest improvement over the V1 was made in the wind-sheilds. Living in Chicago I had a great environment to test this out. While all wind noise was not erased, the caller on the other end always was able to hear with me clarity, even with a strong city wind smacking me in the face. Job well done.

Overall the BlueAnt Q1 voice controlled Bluetooth headset for iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS is a excellent, top quality headset that should not be passed up if you are in the market for a top of the line piece of technology. Buy it now!

Learn more and purchase @TiPb’s Store >>>

We’re listening to Apple’s Q1 conference call, looking for any and all iPhone details in particular to share, and we’ll update as soon as we get them!

• 22.7 Million iPods sold
• iPod touch has been established as outstanding gaming, communication platform.
• 73% of MP3 player market
• 70% in UK and Australia, 50% in Canada
• iTunes record quarter
• App Store tremendous success
• 15,000 apps, 500,000,000 downloads
• 4.4 Million iPhones sold in Q4,
• 13.7 million sold in year (more than the 10 they predicted)
• 70 countries
• Competitors scrambling to catch up
• Years ahead of competition
• 28 billion in the bank
• Plan to open 25 stores in 2009, half internationally
• $199 iPhone a compelling value, nothing else like it in the market
• Not going to play in low-end phone market
• Will look at non-subsidized market and not leaving umbrella
• Loves competition, will suit up against any other smartphone, but won’t stand for anyone ripping off their IP (Tim Cook)
• Call ended!

About the only time Apple updates iPhone sales numbers is during their quarterly conference calls. Last time Steve Jobs himself showed up to crow about the iPhone hitting 10 million ahead of schedule and outselling the BlackBerry. This time? We don’t count on it, but with Steve Jobs, we can never count anything out either.

TUAW says Apple will have this last quarter’s call on Wednesday, January 21 (streaming audio link). TiPb, as per usual, will provide coverage of the event, with focus on the iPhone news.

Mark your calendars, and then jump into the comments and let us know how many iPhones you think have been sold by now, 12 million? What about App Store downloads? Half a billion yet? (Our bet is TiPb commenters get far closer than the analysts who should be popping up any minute now…)