• ReadWriteWeb, Wednesday, February 9, 2011 11:23 AM

Marking a major milestone for mobile technology, smartphone sales in the final quarter of 2011 passed global PC shipments for the first time in history. "Simply put, smartphones just outsold PCs for the first time ever," ReadWriteWeb summarizes. Makers of mobile devices distributed a total of 101 million smartphones in the last three months of the year -- up 87% year-over-year, according to International Data Corp.

"This 'inflection point has arrived quicker than many have thought," notes Fortune. "Former Morgan Stanley Analyst and now venture capital advisor Mary Meeker pointed to 2012 as when Smartphones would pass PC in terms of raw numbers in a presentation in November." "Analysts had expected smartphones to take the lead at some point in 2011, but the transition happened more quickly as a wide range of manufacturers of mobile devices embraced Android," according to the Financial Times.

Indeed, while Nokia, RIM and Apple brought in the majority of unit shipments, IDC credits Android with accelerating the mobile revolution. Android "has become the cornerstone of multiple vendors' smartphone strategies and has quickly become a challenger to market leader Symbian," said Ramon Llamas, senior research analyst with IDC's Mobile Phone Technology and Trends team. Notes Business Insider: "All of this is good news for smartphone makers and supply chains and horrible news for PC makers and supply chains."

"The future certainly looks to be mobile with the majority of the world's population going to the web from their smartphone rather than their PC," Fortune adds. To wit, Geek.com ask: "Need any further proof that the future of computing and the internet is mobile?"

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