Launch of Apple's Verizon iPhone stems growth of Google Android platform

Posted:
in iPhone edited January 2014
Market share of Apple's iPhone grew in early 2011 thanks to the launch of the new Verizon iPhone, resulting in lost ground for the Google Android platform for the first time since the second quarter of 2009.



The NPD Group on Thursday announced its first quarter of 2011 Mobile Phone Track U.S. sales estimates for mobile devices, showing the effect the launch of the Verizon iPhone in February had on the market. Apple's mobile sales represented 14 percent of the domestic market, good for third place in terms of all mobile phone sales.



NPD's figures include both smartphones and feature phones, but for the first time, a majority of new handset purchases were smartphones. Even though smartphones are now king in America, Google's multi-device Android platform lost ground for the first time in nearly two years.



Google's losses came about chiefly because Apple built a new CDMA variant of its hugely popular iPhone 4. That device went on sale in February, and achieved sales of 2.2 million by the end of March.



Apple's total sales were behind only Samsung, which took 23 percent of units in the U.S., and LG, which represented 18 percent. But the iPhone 4 was also the top selling individual smartphone and the iPhone 3GS came in second, followed by the Motorola Droid X, HTC EVO 4G and HTC Droid Incredible.



"Apple and Verizon had a very successful launch of the iPhone 4, which allowed the iPhone to expand its market share that was previously held back by its prolonged carrier exclusivity with AT&T," said Ross Rubin, executive director of industry analysis at NPD. "While some of that growth came at the expense of Android operating system, Android models still accounted for half of all smartphones sold in the quarter."







Android's 50 percent of smartphone unit sales in the first quarter of 2011 was down from the 53 percent during the fourth quarter of calendar 2010. During that same span, Apple's iOS share grew 9 percent to represent 28 percent of all smartphone sales.



Apple's rival BlackBerry also continued to lose ground as the competition grows. Research in Motion's BlackBerry operating system shrunk by 5 points in the first quarter of 2011, to 14 percent.



"The rise of Apple and HTC show how companies can drive change in a mature device market to change the rules of the game," Rubin said. "The overall success of U.S. market leaders Samsung and LG will be tied to their success in the smartphone market."
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 53
    povilaspovilas Posts: 473member
    And still 2 US carriers to go. Future is bright.
  • Reply 2 of 53
    solipsismsolipsism Posts: 25,726member
    Does 2.2 million devices sold on Verizon make up the majority of the percentage drop for Android-based devices?



    I’ll have to wait until next quarter, at least, to see about possible trends worth trading on. At this point there just isn’t enough data points for me.
  • Reply 3 of 53
    povilaspovilas Posts: 473member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by solipsism View Post


    Does 2.2 million devices sold on Verizon make up the majority of the percentage drop for Android-based devices?



    I?ll have to wait until next quarter, at least, to see about possible trends worth trading on. At this point there just isn?t enough data points for me.



    What else if not iPhone then?
  • Reply 4 of 53
    MacProMacPro Posts: 19,712member
    BlackBerry a rival to iPhone? Maybe several years ago RIM hoped that but it seems redundant to use the word rival and BlackBerry in the same sentence as Apple or iPhone now.
  • Reply 5 of 53
    ihxoihxo Posts: 567member
    not everyone wants to buy a copy cat.
  • Reply 6 of 53
    sheffsheff Posts: 1,407member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by AppleInsider View Post


    Apple's rival BlackBerry also continued to lose ground as the competition grows. Research in Motion's BlackBerry operating system shrunk by 5 points in the first quarter of 2011, to 14 percent.



    Microsoft should buy RIM (for zero billion dollars , and together they should make an exit from consumer space and focus solely on the enterprise. Call it Microberry or Blacksoft. That way MS will have a tablet OS and RIM a desktop os. Once they integrate their IT infrastructure like BBM and exchange they will be an unstoppable enterprise force.



    They can then stop innovating and just sit on their laurels because corporations are just as resistive to change and innovation in their technology as these firms are resistant to innovate. This will allow both to focus on amount of cash their businesses still make instead of having to invest this cash into something new.
  • Reply 7 of 53
    solipsismsolipsism Posts: 25,726member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Povilas View Post


    What else if not iPhone then?



    A good part of it could be Android?s drop after a holiday quarter combined with its plateauing. Or maybe it was all because of the iPhone on Verizon. I just don?t think there is enough evidence at this point that anything we state as verity would be post hoc ergo propter hoc.
  • Reply 8 of 53
    bloggerblogbloggerblog Posts: 2,461member
    Ha?! The headline sounds like the Android platform grew after the Verizon iPhone launched?



    "Launch of Apple's Verizon iPhone stems growth of Google Android platform"
  • Reply 9 of 53
    cameronjcameronj Posts: 2,357member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by digitalclips View Post


    BlackBerry a rival to iPhone? Maybe several years ago RIM hoped that but it seems redundant to use the word rival and BlackBerry in the same sentence as Apple or iPhone now.



    I don't think that word means what you think it means.
  • Reply 10 of 53
    sambansamban Posts: 171member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by sheff View Post


    Microsoft should buy RIM (for zero billion dollars , and together they should make an exit from consumer space and focus solely on the enterprise. Call it Microberry or Blacksoft. That way MS will have a tablet OS and RIM a desktop os. Once they integrate their IT infrastructure like BBM and exchange they will be an unstoppable enterprise force.



    They can then stop innovating and just sit on their laurels because corporations are just as resistive to change and innovation in their technology as these firms are resistant to innovate. This will allow both to focus on amount of cash their businesses still make instead of having to invest this cash into something new.



    RIM's market cap is 100 Billion IOUs .



    How about SoftBerry or MicroBlack, if you see they can have all of them as they love naming things like, home basic, home premium, business, professional, ultimate etc..,
  • Reply 11 of 53
    wovelwovel Posts: 956member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by solipsism View Post


    A good part of it could be Android?s drop after a holiday quarter combined with its plateauing. Or maybe it was all because of the iPhone on Verizon. I just don?t think there is enough evidence at this point that anything we state as verity would be post hoc ergo propter hoc.



    It is market share, thus unaffected by holidays. Unless you think Android device sales are more affected by the holiday then anyone else.



    During the same time iPhone sales went up. This is not causation, but the holiday quarter is not relevant at all..
  • Reply 12 of 53
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by solipsism View Post


    A good part of it could be Android?s drop after a holiday quarter combined with its plateauing. Or maybe it was all because of the iPhone on Verizon. I just don?t think there is enough evidence at this point that anything we state as verity would be post hoc ergo propter hoc.



    I think the main reason is because there's really nothing new from either iOS or Android in terms of smartphone hardware, so basically the only thing left is the Verizon iPhone. Right now I think because of Japan's trouble, this is going to drag on and nobody is going to ramp up production of new generation of smartphone, and I expect the sales trends to be getting more stable for the next few months.
  • Reply 13 of 53
    sheffsheff Posts: 1,407member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Wovel View Post


    It is market share, thus unaffected by holidays. Unless you think Android device sales are more affected by the holiday then anyone else.



    Well android does love a good holiday party. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=814zBQCcB4A



    But yea I think the plateauing is a better explanation.
  • Reply 14 of 53
    wovelwovel Posts: 956member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by drobforever View Post


    I think the main reason is because there's really nothing new from either iOS or Android in terms of smartphone hardware, so basically the only thing left is the Verizon iPhone. Right now I think because of Japan's trouble, this is going to drag on and nobody is going to ramp up production of new generation of smartphone, and I expect the sales trends to be getting more stable for the next few months.



    There are new Android phones every couple weeks. Many or even most of them claim to be better then the iPhone.
  • Reply 15 of 53
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by bloggerblog View Post


    Ha?! The headline sounds like the Android platform grew after the Verizon iPhone launched?



    "Launch of Apple's Verizon iPhone stems growth of Google Android platform"



    The Android platform did grow. It just lost ground in marketshare. This happened because the market as a whole grew.



    Basically, earlier it was 53% of X. Now it is 50% X + Y, where Y is large enough that their sales are greater than they were the last year.
  • Reply 16 of 53
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by solipsism View Post


    A good part of it could be Android?s drop after a holiday quarter combined with its plateauing. Or maybe it was all because of the iPhone on Verizon. I just don?t think there is enough evidence at this point that anything we state as verity would be post hoc ergo propter hoc.



    Umm....no...



    Its marketshare, not total sales that have dropped. The holiday quarter will affect ALL phones the same way. Holiday quarter has nothing to do with it.



    Its completely due to increased demand for the iPhone, as evidenced by its 9 point rise.



    The question for Apple is if this can be sustained, or if it was just pent up demand.



    However, I think the real competition will begin once the iPhone 5 is available, because iPhone 4 sales are seriously dampened due to iPhone 5 expectations.
  • Reply 17 of 53
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Wovel View Post


    There are new Android phones every couple weeks. Many or even most of them claim to be better then the iPhone.



    True story. I have a couple of friends (both dislike Apple) who bought Android phones. HTC G2 (TMobile) and the latest Droid from Verizon.



    These are smart technical folks (both SW devs). And they cant figure the phones out. Both of them had the Contacts import completely screwing up phone numbers. I was pretty astonished to hear this, because I thought Android was largely stable. But reality is that its not. Its just that no one ever seems to report on this (well, I cant really blame them, because with the million android phones, its hard to tell what is an OS issue, or what is a phone issue).
  • Reply 18 of 53
    gwlaw99gwlaw99 Posts: 134member
    Of course it stemmed the growth of Android. 100 million people have access to a very popular phone they didn't have before. The question should be, why only a 3% drop? I bet it will be much more than 3% when all those people waiting for the iPhone 5 switch.
  • Reply 19 of 53
    mennomenno Posts: 854member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by solipsism View Post


    Does 2.2 million devices sold on Verizon make up the majority of the percentage drop for Android-based devices?



    I’ll have to wait until next quarter, at least, to see about possible trends worth trading on. At this point there just isn’t enough data points for me.



    The other thing to remember is that the only big Verizon Android launch recently was the Tbolt, which was priced $50 higher ( I know that is nothing compared to contract price, but the average customer balks at a $10 difference let alone a $50) And of course, this is the first time Verizon customers had the option of the iPhone on their network, so there was a lot of pent up demand (and a lot of customers are still under contract, so they won't get a new phone yet anyway).



    This is why I hate "analysis" like this. It's far to short term and ignores things like contract terms, which play a HUGE role in when a customer gets a device.



    It will be interesting to see the numbers after the iphone's been on the network after a year or so, because a ton of people will be coming off contract, including all of the Droid early adopters (which grabbed a significant amount of the "New to Smartphone" market on verizon.) Day 1 Moto Droid customers don't become eligible to upgrade until July, and before that the only "Premium" phone Most verizon customers had as an option was the original Blackberry Storm.
  • Reply 20 of 53
    "...for zero billion dollars." Funny!



    "...because corporations are just as resistive to change and innovation in their technology as these firms are resistant to innovate." Well said Sheff, true and "not so funny!"
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