Apple has become the #1 mobile phone vendor according to a recent report by Strategy Analysis market research firm.

Mobile phone shipments grew 4 percent annually from 50.2 million units in Q4 2011 to 52.0million in the United States in Q4 2012. The growth was driven by robust demand among consumers for 4G smartphones and 3G feature phones. However, despite a solid fourth-quarter performance, the US mobile phone market had previously contracted 16 percent for the first three quarters of 2012 due to economic uncertainty and tighter carrier upgrade policies. As a result, US mobile phone shipments fell 11 percent from 186.8 million units in 2011 to 166.9 million in 2012.

Back in 2007 I predicted that the iPhone would have the impact as important as the original Macintosh.  It now proves that the computer industry is moving to mobile faster than most thought.  Facebook recently announced in their earnings that mobile usage surpassed the web usage.  Smartphones are taking over the world and Apple has been the big winner.

Most notable is that Apple is taking over the top spot from Samsung.  What’s more interesting  is the other computer manufactures who missed the mobile trend – HP, Dell, and IBM.