Android boosts smartphone marketshare

ANALYST OUTFIT Canalys has reported that Android increased its smartphone marketshare by 35 per cent in the first quarter of 2011.

With a creeping sense of inevitability, the bean counters at Canalys got their quarter one 2011 statistics in as Android reached out with an unassailable lead.

According to the analysts, Android led the pack for the second quarter in a row. The company reported that punters have bought 35.7 million Android based smartphones, increasing its marketshare in the first quarter to 35 per cent.

It also showed that the Asian markets continued their buying dominance with a year-on-year growth of 98 per cent, putting them ahead of Europe, the Middle East and Africa for the first time since the third quarter of 2007.

Against all odds, given the troubles Nokia's smartphone portfolio has been through, the Finnish mobile vendor still managed to hold on to its global lead in 28 countries.

"Nokia is under considerable strain in the smart phone market as it transitions strategy, platforms and people," said Canalys principal analyst Pete Cunningham.

"Its worldwide reach, however, should never be underestimated," he added.

Android got a massive boost from vendors who jumped on the bandwagon rather than compete with their own mobile OSs. HTC, Samsung, LG, Motorola and Sony Ericsson all offered Android smartphones, which beefed up the numbers.

Canalys got its crystal ball out in January of this year and predicated that Android would continue to grow at more than twice the rate of its major smartphone competitors in 2011. It seems that it was right, and Android is. µ