Android overtakes the Iphone

Android hasn't grown at the 'expense' of RIM. This last quarter, BB sales were up over 40%, reflecting long-term, sustained growth in sales and revenue. The fact that Android is shifting millions of consumer phones to somewhat different sub-markets is of negligible importance to RIM.

Market share is not the same as sales.

RIM used to have about 50% market share, which in the current market is just not feasible. Neither RIM, nor Apple or any other manufacturer, could hold onto that much of the smartphone market alone. RIM will continue to grow strongly, but its market share is probably going to slip to around 25%.

Hands down, the best phone out is the HTC Evo 4G. Even without 4G in my area yet, it still smokes every phone out there. I used Windows phones for years, I've used a Hero for 30 days, and fiddled around with plenty of friends' iPhones, droids 1/2/X's, Galaxies, etc. The HTC Sense, combined with the size and speed of the Evo is unmatched as of yet... not even close...

This is stupid as it's like comparing Apple's against Orange's (sic). Apple does what it does and does it well. Android is multi-purpose and fits whatever it fits I guess. It does not mean one is better than the other. I do not own an iPhone, iPad or anything else but even I recognise the difference.

This article featurea a bit of a misnomer concerning "inductry leader".

RIM has been the industry leader in the USA for the last number of years in terms of devices, sales.
Nokia has been the world leader.

So, your article is much too narrow - it implies that all that exists in the world of smartphones is Apple and Google.A rather tunnel-visioned view, and a mistaken one at that.

However, if you are suggesting that Apple was the industry leader over the last two years in terms of sales of a single-model phone, then I can concur, though that means that you should only focus on one Android-based device for comparisons sake (in which case Apple crushes its competition).

Yep - Android doesn't work. Poor quality software and an almost non-existent software updates make Android a massive liability. The thought of getting an expensive Android phone on a 2 year contract gives me the heebie geebies. Look at the recently publicised texting bug; want that fixed, you're likely to have to get a new phone. Sure, Google may have fixed the bug, but there's not a handset in the world with the fix on it.

The only Android phone that makes any vague sense at all to get is SIM free Google Nexus; at least with that you're likely to get updates reasonably quickly.

Your experience shows that far from being a threat to Apple, Android is turning in to Job's best recruiting sergeant.

I think that in the Apple rush dear old RIM have been forgotten about. Oh well.

Personally I can't stand Apple to the extent that I'd rather stick to my crappy 4 year old phone than join Apple's communist dictatorial collective. The only hope for us all I think is if Microsoft's shiny new mobile strategy actually pays off. I like the idea of hardware standardisation for mobiles with OS software coming from one central provider, and fewer strings attached than Apple's offering. That's how the PC market has operated for decades, and look at what PCs are now!

Good luck with the iPhone 4 reception and battery life.

I am a business user of smart phones. I am on the road a bit and use my phone for email and web browsing extensively. I have used 6 Android based phones in the last year. I can honestly say that they were all crap. Constant apps crashing, poor battery life, horrible keyboards, half-baked clutter GUI's etc.

My most recent Android phone was the Droid Pro. What a piece of junk. Corporate sync will not even push email consistently. Call quality is horrible and forget about battery life. Just a crappy solution. I was excited about it as it was close to a BB style phone and had high hopes. I can't believe what a pile of junk it is. It bricked a few days ago.

After all of this I have switched to an iPhone4. Gotta admit I love it.

I get the idea of the Android OS. Open source and able to be put on basically any platform. I get it. But I also think that is what makes it weak. Sometimes these open source apps and OS' aren't quite a solid as the ...ew...ah....wicked Communistic big company platforms(ie Apple). Some will argue and that's fine but my experience tells me otherwise.

Gio, Commscore is only counting cell phone subscribers so definitely does not count the iPod touch or the iPad.

Also, Commscore's figures are effectively for the installed base of phone users, so does not count older iPhones passed on to family or children without cell phone plans for use as iOS App games machines etc. With daily sales of the iPod Touch and the iPad equaling sales of the iPhone, that makes iOS at least twice as big as Android in installed base. qed

-Mart

If Verizon doesn't announce the iPhone on their network at their press event on Tuesday, January 11th, they'll be stuck on AT&T. AT&T has already announced new Android phones and are marketing the Windows Phone and Blackberry heavily in TV commercials, so we know the iPhone is no longer their focus. By simple math it's easy to see that Android phones are made by more manufacturers and are on more networks so Android is bound to outsell the iPhone. Apple had a nice lead at first but all the fan boy love in the world can't compete with math and the math already shows that their are more Androids being sold and in use and continuously on the rise. Even if Verizon launches an iPhone, they obviously aren't reducing the count of Android Phones they sell. The only people who compare the iPhone to a phone like the HTC Thunderbolt and chose the iPhone, are fanboys.

"Apple is relying on others to develop and innovate, then rebadging it up in white plastic with a shiny strip."

I must've just awoken from a dream, because that's not how I remember the last 3 years.

I remember Apple launching the iPhone and how Android was at the time an unreleased Symbian-style OS with a keyboard + joystick.

Every time you pick up your Android phone, you benefit from the kick up the arse Apple that dealt the mobile phone industry.

A rabidly anti-Apple student of GCSE Politics like you might not want to believe that, but it's true and even the other mobile phone companies have admitted as much.

Chris

You do come out with some (very longwinded) tosh on occasions. Few (if any) consumer electronics companies these days design all of the components in their devices.

Despite your rants to the contrary even a a cursory Google search shows a number of recent Apple hardware patents (autostereoscopic displays and improved capacitive display sensors to name just two). Apple are taking off the shelf parts, combining them with their own technology and good industrial design to produce devices that consumers want to buy. If you can find a better definition of a successful CE company I'd like to hear it.

Android phones cover the price spectrum, from models that cost the same as conventional feature phones (with resistive touch screens and ARM 11 CPUs) through mid range and high end devices. The high end models are highly unlikely to be responsible for the majority of Android sales. All that Apple has is a high end model, and last year's version sold at a lower (but still not cheap) price. Two models against dozens and they nearly match sales? Samsung, LG etc would kill to have two upper end models that sell in those volumes.

Both android and iOS could co-exist.

if Nokia is any indication, I don't see how volume alone could kill the iPhone.

These stats are based on operating systems i.e. android and iOS, so the numbers are based on operating systems being used, so the figures do actually include iPad and iPod, where in case of Android its counting phone and pads also. So when the slew of Android pads hit the market in the next couple of months your really going to see Apple's market share severly diminish.

The comment you made is just iDiotic about the "over 130 million iOS devices sold". That comment is based on a Steve Jobsesque Stay face comment. Think about it those numbers are for every device ever sold, how many people that had the original iPhone are still using it, if I had to guess less than 10%.

These stats are based on functioning and currently being used devices, not an Apple fanboi that runs out to get the newest device to line Jobs pockets.

Martin,

Your comment was thoughtful, well argued and interesting. However:

Baaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

My question to you is: what are smartphone *operating system* marketshare figures useful for?

If your answer is “so developers and consumers can see which is the largest platform for their software”, then why are you not including all iOS devices in your analysis? If you do that, then Apple’s installed base suddenly doubles and leaves both Android and Blackberry in the dust.

If you answer that OS marketshare figures are important for advertisers, then again, why not include all iOS devices that share the same mobile browser and app platform?

If you answer “so 3rd party hardware peripheral manufacturers know which platform to target” then you should be considering the far larger number of iOS devices that all share a common dock connector and standard form factor compared to the completely fragmented form factor and dock connector standards of the myriads of much smaller competitors.

Of course consumers also want to know which phone has the most dock-equipped audio systems, car steering wheel interfaces, clock radios, etc and of course the answer is the iPhone which is virtually unchallenged in this regard.

The fact is that Commscore includes tablets like the Dell Streak and Samsung Galaxy Tab in their figures because Google requires all tablets include cell phone hardware in order to get access to the Android Marketplace. However, Commscore does not count the iPod touch and the iPad. The iPod touch even by itself boasts sales close to that of the iPhone, particularly during the pre-Christmas quarter.

With the iPod touch and iPad completely obliterating the opposition in mini tablets and tablets respectively, Apple still has by far the largest mobile OS platform installed base with over 130 million iOS devices sold.

In terms of new sales, back in October Apple was selling 270,000 iOS devices a day (peaking at 300,000 on some days) when Google was activating 200,000 Android devices. Recently Google announced they had hit 300,000 activations a day, and while we haven't yet heard what Apple's latest figures are it is highly likely they will be higher than Android thanks to the usual pre-Christmas sales surge of all iOS devices.

If you are only interested in smartphones, then why aren’t you comparing Samsung, Motorola, HTC, etc all individually against Apple and RIM?

Why can’t analysts make comparisons that are actually useful?

-Mart

Would you mind putting "USA" in that article.
The insular US mobile market is completely out of step with the rest of the planet. In the rest of the world Symbian is *still* the huge elephant in the room, with Android and iOS fighting it out for 2nd place.

@interested_party you pushed it waaaay to far, especially in the second half, but still +1 for the Communism part. I had similar statements about 10 years for mac in general.

you made me laugh

"I have no loyalty to a company that makes devices or sofware or anything. I want a good device for a good price, and I don't want to be ripped off. Which is why I no longer buy Sony, and haven't bought Apple.

Read more: http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/comment/1935471/android-overtakes-iphone#ixzz1ALlIsZ5o
The Inquirer - Computer hardware news and downloads. Visit the download store today."

it just shows how little you really know

@interested_party, that was the best reply ever to a fanbois!!!! every point was spot on, it was funny and I can wait to see the fanbois crying in their replies :)

I completely agree with you, I personally have a HTC HD2 (best phone out at the time and no i do not consider any apple phone better than HTC's offerings) so yes I had to put up with Windows Phone 6.5 for a while, fortunately the XDA community made fantastic ROMS which vastly improved its capabilities and now I am running the latest Android 2.2 sense build on it and at work I still switch back to Windows Phone 6.5 as no other system has better exchange integration than what MS provide for me to use for work.

Soon there will be Android 3 running on my phone or possibly Windows Phone 7 once its been ported, good luck doing half of what these phones are capable of on a Iphone.

p.s. i love how Nick's articles annoy the fanbois especially when he spells the name of their toy the correct way and not their made up way lol

What you say is true, Apple doesn't target the mass, low-end market. But it's wrong to imply that that is all that Android is targeting. Android's strength is that it can be bunged on phones across the whole spectrum, from cheap pay-as-you-go phones to top of the range, iphone rivals like the Desire, Galaxy-S, Desire HD, et al.

That was always going to happen.

Apple do not target the mass low end market, they leave that to the others like Microsoft and Google.

You cannot kill Apple only make it more desireable..