Thurrott'ling iPhone Market Share: Paul Retorts!

Yesterday we covered some of the blogswarm surrounding the iPhone having (possibly!) already sold 10 million units, becoming the most popular smartphone in the US, and the 2nd most popular handset in the US.

Well, Windows Super-Siter Paul Thurrott retorts:

So this is just like Mac market share, in other words. It’s a subset of a subset of a market, picked to make the picture look even rosier than it really is. It’s US sales of smart phones to consumers over the counter at retail locations only, not “US sales of smart phones.” Most smart phones are sold to business users, not consumers, incidentally. And that means that “typical” smart phone sales are corporate sales, not consumer sales. This whole thing is a crock.

So, is Paul right? Are the sales numbers cherry-picked, smoke shrouded, mirror-skewed, squinted at slivers of fantasized reality? Or is he, a well known iPhone and Mac user, just trolling to get sites like ours to link to his blog? (D'oh!)

Rene Ritchie is one of the most respected Apple analysts in the business, reaching a combined audience of over 40 million readers a month. His YouTube channel, Vector, has over 90 thousand subscribers and 14 million views and his podcasts, including Debug, have been downloaded over 20 million times. He also regularly co-hosts MacBreak Weekly for the TWiT network and co-hosted CES Live! and Talk Mobile. Based in Montreal, Rene is a former director of product marketing, web developer, and graphic designer. He's authored several books and appeared on numerous television and radio segments to discuss Apple and the technology industry. When not working, he likes to cook, grapple, and spend time with his friends and family.