iPhone closes in on Android in growing U.S. smartphone market

Posted:
in iPhone edited January 2014


As of February, smartphone users accounted for nearly half of all wireless subscribers in the U.S., and Apple's iPhone adoption rate saw growth while Android handset activations slipped.



According to new data from Nielsen published on Thursday, sales of Apple's iPhone accounted for 43 percent of all new smartphone purchases over the past three months, a 6 percent increase from the period ending in December, while Android's share fell nearly 4 percent to cover 48 percent of activations.



Riding on strong iPhone 4S sales, Apple's iOS is slowly closing the gap with Google's Android OS and now accounts for 32 percent of all smartphones. The iPhone isn't eating into Android's market, however, and is instead picking up deserters from RIM's sinking BlackBerry platform.



Android remained top dog and took 48 percent of the smartphone market, while RIM accounted for a 12 percent share. Other devices like Windows Phone and Symbian filled out the list with an 8 percent stake.











The smartphone market as a whole took 49.7 percent of all mobile subscribers, a 38 percent increase form the same time last year when feature phones dominated the landscape.











During the three months ending in February, more than two-thirds of those who purchased a new mobile device opted for a smartphone.



[ View article on AppleInsider ]

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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 51
    solipsismxsolipsismx Posts: 19,566member
    A forum poster just said that Android is growing much faster than iOS? This seems to counter that claim.
  • Reply 2 of 51
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by SolipsismX View Post


    A forum poster just said that Android is growing much faster than iOS? This seems to counter that claim.



    "was"



    Quite a few people must have wised up.



    I thought this would happen with the 6th gen phone coming out later this year. Never did I expect it to happen with the 4S.



    Android is in trouble.
  • Reply 3 of 51
    gatorguygatorguy Posts: 24,176member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by island hermit View Post


    "was"



    Quite a few people must have wised up.



    I thought this would happen with the 6th gen phone coming out later this year. Never did I expect it to happen with the 4S.



    Android is in trouble.



    That qualifies for the "Doomed" tag doesn't it?
  • Reply 4 of 51
    mechanicmechanic Posts: 805member
    This can't be all the fandroids tells us that 850000 droids are activated each day!

    This comes from the head fandroid himself Andy Fandroid Rubin.
  • Reply 5 of 51
    red oakred oak Posts: 1,087member
    That is amazing. Apple against the world. And Apple is not even on T-Mobile



    And it gets better with the new iPhone release coming. And, could the 4S actually go to $99 and the 4 go for $0? Well, that would be a slam dunk
  • Reply 6 of 51
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Mechanic View Post


    This can't be all the fandroids tells us that 850000 droids are activated each day!

    This comes from the head fandroid himself Andy Fandroid Rubin.



    850k is the whole world i suppose



    I won't be surprised if Android is doing much better relatively in non-US countries than US. Here the US carriers are very restrictive and it's not good for an OS like Android. Plus iPhone 4S is the 1st phone with 3 of the 4 major US cairrers selling/promoting it.
  • Reply 7 of 51
    shadowxprshadowxpr Posts: 162member
    The reason is the 3GS free and 99$ iPhone 4. Right now apple is competing on price and android has the variety of models. Where iPhone will get the lead is in business. Android is notorious for malware...
  • Reply 8 of 51
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Gatorguy View Post


    That qualifies for the "Doomed" tag doesn't it?



    Not quite... Android hasn't hit "beleaguered" yet.
  • Reply 9 of 51
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by island hermit View Post


    Not quite... Android hasn't hit "beleaguered" yet.



    It is difficult to consider a platform with rapidly increasing sales "beleaguered".



    Maybe that's part of the reason?
  • Reply 10 of 51
    freerangefreerange Posts: 1,597member
    Of course Apple is taking some share from Android if it's share declined 4% contrary to the statement in this article. Who the hell else would have? The author was looking at the wrong stats.
  • Reply 11 of 51
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by I am a Zither Zather Zuzz View Post


    It is difficult to consider a platform with rapidly increasing sales "beleaguered".



    Maybe that's part of the reason?



    Google doesn't sell Android, nor does it sell phones.
  • Reply 12 of 51
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by island hermit View Post


    Google doesn't sell Android, nor does it sell phones.







    What's that got to do with the price of tea in China?
  • Reply 13 of 51
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by I am a Zither Zather Zuzz View Post






    What's that got to do with the price of tea in China?



    Google doesn't make any revenue from android other than ad revenue.



    One report basically says that another os gives google more mobile ad revenue than their own product.



    Why would you continue to support something that gives you such little return? You could sell the os to another company and let them develop it. The return in ad revenue would be the same.



    Android is definitely heading to beleaguered... give it time.



    {... and besides... you talked about "rapidly increasing sales"... again, Google does not sell Android, nor does it sell phones]
  • Reply 14 of 51
    I'm honestly surprised that RIM deserters are going to iOS over Android. The one thing I hear from people who still cling to their Blackberries is that they can email faster from it than any other device. So you'd think they'd go with the platform that offers phones with physical keyboards - less of a learning curve. It'd be interesting to know what the psychology is there. Perhaps iOS works better with Exchange than Android?
  • Reply 15 of 51
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by tetzel1517 View Post


    I'm honestly surprised that RIM deserters are going to iOS over Android. The one thing I hear from people who still cling to their Blackberries is that they can email faster from it than any other device. So you'd think they'd go with the platform that offers phones with physical keyboards - less of a learning curve. It'd be interesting to know what the psychology is there. Perhaps iOS works better with Exchange than Android?



    They just want a "good" phone...
  • Reply 16 of 51
    gtrgtr Posts: 3,231member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by I am a Zither Zather Zuzz View Post


    It is difficult to consider a platform with rapidly increasing sales "beleaguered".



    Rapidly increasing sales because it's cheap (and nasty). I'd call that "beleaguered".



    Considering the number of companies that are combined to provide Android statistics, this is an extremely poor showing when the competition is a single company.
  • Reply 17 of 51
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by tetzel1517 View Post


    I'm honestly surprised that RIM deserters are going to iOS over Android. The one thing I hear from people who still cling to their Blackberries is that they can email faster from it than any other device. So you'd think they'd go with the platform that offers phones with physical keyboards - less of a learning curve. It'd be interesting to know what the psychology is there. Perhaps iOS works better with Exchange than Android?



    I get email on my iPhone through GMail/Exchange faster than I do on my desktop with GMail notifications.



    As for QWERTY keyboards... more phones are sold without keyboards these days.



    And judging by RIM's recent earnings call... it looks like the Blackberry's spectacular keyboards are no longer in great demand.
  • Reply 18 of 51
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by GTR View Post


    Rapidly increasing sales because it's cheap (and nasty). I'd call that "beleaguered".



    Considering the number of companies that are combined to provide Android statistics, this is an extremely poor showing when the competition is a single company.



    Agreed.



    I never understood the "we sell more" argument from Android fans... especially when it's comprised of so many mid to low-end phones.



    Shouldn't all those crappy phones weight against Android as a platform?
  • Reply 19 of 51
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by GTR View Post


    Rapidly increasing sales because it's cheap (and nasty). I'd call that "beleaguered".






    I guess that is just one manner in which you "Think different".
  • Reply 20 of 51
    quadra 610quadra 610 Posts: 6,757member
    Android/OEM devices are collectively, mass-produced junk in varying states of usability. Its advantage? It's mass-produced. Just flood the market and there you go.



    The lazy man's way to majority share. And a lousy User Experience for hapless consumers.
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