iPhone drops to 23.8% smartphone market share, Android jumps to 17%

Android is rising because Apple is letting Android rise. Those numbers/or percentage will soon change once Apple goes multi-carriers (USA) in the future.

When??? Not really asking you, but I think that is what consumers are wondering. People can't just sit around and wait for Apple to become available. People have a need/desire for a phone similar to iPhone. Every month that ticks by, it's another million people that are buying into the Android Market. A huge chunk of those people will probably not switch unless they are "free app only" kinds of folks.

Really, as an iPhone user, that's my main reason for not trying an Android phone. I've already committed to the App Store. That and... every Android phone I use feels cheap and the UI is terrible. Too many layers.

yeah, I was gonna put a positive spin on it too

with the amount of android devices compared to iphone/iOS devices, Android should be ahead. It's kinda sad that they aren't. Google doesn't even make it's own hardware, it's kinda a lame comparison

It is good to have competitors.

It push forward the efforts toward excellence.

And then if people want to have second quality product, let them have.

There are already too much iPhone owner that cannot use it and cannot take advantage of it.


Titan10

Speaking of layers - attempting to change the settings on the very latest NOKIA will snap off your 'pointing' finger - apparently

People can wait, but not all people can. If we do see Apple go multi-carrier it will probably be 2011-2012 depending on the contract with AT&T. If it's 2012, then people contracts will be expiring by then (for those who signed this year) and we will see a mass of people jumping to purchase the iphone on their network.


Well with 40+ Android devices, those numbers are increasing rapidly.

I agree. Apple's strategy is based on monopoly and early lead, the same strategy used 25 years ago for the Mac. Windows 95 crushed Apple once and Android is poised to do the same in the smartphone market. Alas.

At best, Apple's strategy can only lead to an early success followed by a downfall to a 5% world market share. Some people never learn. Greed and supersized egos. Alas.


\\\

Apple needs to diversify its iphone segments.

An Iphone Nano/Mini with a lover price point could do it.

The SonyEricsson mini experia 10 is an exempel that people wants smaller smart phones.

I agree with you and disagree with you. Apples only has the monopoly strategy on the USA. Apple does not have a monopoly strategy on other parts of the world. well only with the iphone that is.

The iPhone needs to be on other networks in the USA ASAP. Android's reached the point it's no longer a cute distraction. Hey Apple, pay your ETF and maintain your dominance before it's gone for good. It doesn't matter if there's a million companies making Android phones, it's how many consumers can you reach, and Apple only reaches AT&T and AT&T tends to suck for a lot of people. If Android was then what it is now, I'd have never switched to AT&T for iPhone. People love to talk apps, but what it all boils down to is a touchscreen phone with a good web browser. Well it's out there on every carrier now, so it's time to compete on every carrier. iPhone is still as hot as it always was, but there's a lot of other hotties now that there weren't before.

I'm sure some people want a smaller phone, but most of the Android handsets I've seen are as big or even bigger than the iPhone. That tells me there's a big market for large screen phones.

Many people over 40 simply don't have the eyesight to get much value from a browser packed into 3.5". I personally can't focus on anything closer than 18" and the small text on phones usually requires it be held no more than 12" away. It's not just the web either, many apps insist on using small font sizes. For example the ESPN World Cup app used tiny text for team summaries, player bios, stats and comments. In the end I mostly used it to follow the results. At least those were presented in larger text.

Good job, Android. You are nearly able to catch up with iPhone's market share (oops, not yet) by a gazillion of devices.


How fair it is!

even if Apple adds more carriers, they still need to compete with the upcoming challenger named: Windows Phone. Afterwars comes Android 3.0 (Gingerbread). all this will happen way before Apple goes multicarrier.

Good luck, Apple.

In the US you can buy the 3GS for $99. that is about as mid range as you get, so I would assume Apple gets plenty of the mid-range market.

the issue is not so much all of the different Android devices, so much as the iPhone market is saturated. Several recent articles have pointed out that these days, in the US at least, most iPhone sales are to people upgrading their phones, and not so much new customers. Hence part of the loss of market share.

Android's rise is temporary. Microsoft will take a bit away from Android. RIM will eventually come around with decent hardware (i.e. Storm 3 this winter) and Nokia will break into America. WebOS may make a dent too but we'll see if HP let's it die on the vine.

Is this because Android is better? Should I sell my iPhone 4 before iOS reaches zero percent market share?

Profit, not market share is Apple's ultimate goal. They do quite well with that 5% market share too. They've stated before that they are in the business of making the best devices, not the most devices, it seems a lot of people tend to forget that. Even if Apple dropped to 5% market share in the smartphone business, they'd only be failing by your standards.

If Apple wanted market share, they'd have multiple phone models at different price points, 2 for 1 deals, and they never would have signed that exclusivity contract with AT&T (they did that to pioneer things like visual voicemail, and keep control of the phone in their hands and not the carriers). However, if they did all that, the quality of their product would drop and so would their margins, and likely their profits. Market share is great, but that's not what they're ultimately after (just ask Nokia how well market share translates to dollars). They want to sell quality hardware with solid profit margins, and that's what they are doing.

That said, the phone market is not the computer market, I wouldn't expect things to play out in the same manner.

Apple need to end their single-carrier strategy yesterday.

First off those of you sitting in glee at the STATISTICS just remember if it had not been for Apple you would still be using your mobile with a crappy interface.
The whole episode proves that competition does not promote advancement, the whole mobile industry were delivering the same same phones year in year out.
Apple who were not mobile phone manufacturers saw that there was a better way and gave it to us.
Now all we can do is snipe etc at Apple.
It is obvious that Android will do better as they offer a free OS to those same dull mobile manufacturers who were content to just take our money without making any attempt to give us what we want or need.
So they can plaster that OS on cheap models as they did not spend much on R&D.
Do not praise them they have only their best interests at heart.

For all Apples failings they year in year out develop products that will make us work and live better. unlike the others in the IT industry who just want your money.
Research is not cheap so Apple products are not but when you buy a cheap PC thats what you get ok for word processing perhaps not much else.
Snipe if it makes you feel better but a lot of what you use today is courtesy of the infinite loop R&D

> iPhone drops to 24% smartphone share, Android jumps to 17% <

O my god, the sky is falling. Woe is me, Apple is doomed!

Meanwhile the iP4 is sold out and selling faster than they can make them.

Ah, well, why bother fighting. Apple is clearly d00med™ Android has won, Apple has lost, thanks for playing, be sure to leave your iPhones in the trash cans provided on your way out.





Yeah, right...!

Yes, haven't you heard? Android won, it's all over. Get rid of your iPhone 4 ASAP. It's worthless. Just like Macs, since they are at 5% or whatever.

You seem to forget that Apple still leads Android in the US, probably because Android makers did not get serious in the US until 6 months after it they entered the European markets in a big way.

Apple trails android in areas where apple is already available through multi-carriers, and has been for some time. In fact, it is so far ahead of Apple in these areas, that it negates the deficit in the US (a very large mobile market) when viewed globally.

Maybe. But take something as simple as hdmi which the evo has or flash down the road and you can watch all your shows for free on the web vs .99cents could be a game changer and if the evo is getting such great reviews, one has to wonder what Googles OS will be like.

I think the evo is sexy and it comes with turning your phone into a wifi hotspot and the cool thing is you can carry an extra battery and swap them and charge the other. Some pretty cool things on the new evo and sexy too!!!

Blessings!!!!

Apple needs enough market share that developers (developers! developers! developers! ) create apps for iOS. Microsoft won out partly because of the lockstep Office/Windows and because of third party developments. The Android market is so immature compared to the iOS market that the development is still in Apple's favour. Phones like Android phones, RIM phones, Nokia and a future WinPhone7 have a lot of catching up top do still. And the actual money made in Android market is still not much (let alone the other contenders). As long as that is the case, the Mac/Win95 comparison is not really applicable.

If Microsoft succeeds at putting a believable Office on WinPhone7, it alone might do very good in the business world to start with and that gives you a market share that developers will flock to.

Apple relaxing the app store rulings on other developer environments can also partly be seen in this light: it is the developers that are a key ingredient in the circle that drives tha platform.

Android is a possible platform contender, but so far outside the US it is mainly a feature phone +. What is it? Only 6 countries where Android developers can actually charge for apps? ANd where are usable ANdroid tablets that can run the same apps? And where is the change in the Android's memory model that will allow it to run larger apps? Android phones are cheap partly because they have not much memory and you need to add it with a SD card that is limited in its use as an app playground. Has that changed yet? Google announced it would change over a year ago. That is going to change, but so is Apple's lock to AT&T in the US. And how is Google going to make money on Android? If not, how are they going to keep up? ANd what about Chrome vs Android? If Chrome is going to be the laptop OS, what does that spell for Android as a 'mobile platform', that is, more than just smartphones?

Anyway, Apple can still screw up and they are only one company in the end. They are currently not motivated to reduce their margins as they cannot grow fast enough to make up for that.

But on the other hand, the ecosystem is looking nicer and nicer, with Facetime, the remote app on your phone handling your in house entertainment streaming via AirPlay, the 7in retina display iPad and more to come.

Android is doing good in the US market, but it is not a done deal. The developers at least will flock to here they can make money best.

I was referring to the US market share. But yes, you do have a point about European market share. Right now Apple still has the lead, but Apples market share is declining while Android devices are gaining market share rapidly. Apple can slow their numbers down if Apple goes multi-carrier in the USA. But of course Apple doesn't really care about market share, they only care about profits.

Market share versus total devices

Keep reporting a quarter when Apple was about to launch a new model and Android devices were being pushed heavily...

I also think the HTC Evo is a good phone. But one thing I dont like about the evo is that it tends to eat up the battery fast. My friend has the evo and he has an extra battery and always carries his charger around with him. If you're gonna use the hdmi or mobile hotspot, make sure to use it while it's in the charger lol

I also wonder if Apple actually prefers Android as a competitor over RIM, Nokia, or Microsoft and therefore does not react strongly to Android's rise in teh US. Suppose Apple works from the premise that there will be not a monopoly, but at least a duopoly. A fragmented, cheap Android world in the low price area would be preferable over Microsoft, RIM or Nokia who also have the most profitable part of the slice in their crosshairs.

Apple might actually shoot for fragmentation with itself as owner of the most profitable slice.

Note, that for Apple itself, such strategic thoughts seem to be secondary. They know that whatever success they will have depends on user experience as the driver. Market share leads to app choice leads to a positive user experience. They won't go for market share per se (as they have stated), but being driven by user experience, they must have learned it is an important factor.

Googles customers love Android, manufacturers and networks can load it with crapware to their hearts content and nickel and dime end naive end users egged on by a tech press minority who have been conned into promoting the "openess" of it all.

"Yeah Grandma, to get rid of vcast all you have to do is root it and install a custom ROM"

The iPhone is a single platform from a single manufacturer. Android is multiple incompatible platforms that share some commonality, made by multiple different manufacturers, and with varying restrictions from the carriers. The commonality—some flavor (but not the same!) of Google’s OS, comes from being given away free (ultimately to sell ads).

Comparing iPhone and Android is interesting to a point, but it’s apples and oranges. There’s no one company selling all those Android phones, no one company directly making money on the OS (because it’s free) and no one platform for developers to make and sell apps for (thanks to incompatible hardware, multiple OS versions with low adoption of the latest, and very limited Android Market deployment to different countries).

In short, iOS is as strong as ever (and I believe iPhone 4 broke sales records yet again). Android is nowhere near catching up in anything but combined numbers. And don’t forget that iOS includes iPod and iPad. Unlike the different Android devices, they really CAN run most of the same apps, and most of the same OS features! (All of them in fact, if you look at recent models.)

So what you are saying is that if Apple were really greedy ... and wanted a bigger market share ... it would...do what exactly?
Give its OS away like Google?

Great business strategy!

C.

Exactly. Carriers are taking advantage of Androids "openness" and loading a bunch of bloatware/crapware onto these devices. Verizon is going to add it's own v-cast app store on their droid devices. Now is Apple going to let verizon let this happen to it's iPhone?? No way! They're going to do what AT&T is doing and provide their crapware through the app store.

``And he said unto them, Go. And when they were come out, they went into the herd of swine: and, behold, the whole herd of swine ran violently down a steep place into the sea, and perished in the waters.' '
Matthew 8:32

Before a deal can be struck, Apple may still have to prove to Verizon that it is unwilling to relinquish control of iOS devices.

If the AT&T exclusivity ended. Presumably it would not be just Verizon, the other GSM networks would offer iPhone too.

Isn't T-Mobile GSM?

In the UK all the carriers offer iPhone. And we are starting to see a bit of competition.
They all seem to be offering rolling-contract deals for people who own their own phones outright.

C.

You've got to wonder how the iPhone would sell if Antennagate didn't happen.

Android is a flash in the pan, just like its parent OS, Linux. If you haven't noticed, Linux is an irrelevant flop for end-users.

It is doomed to Balkanization. There will be Motorola Android, HTC Android, Dell Android, etc. And they will all lock-in their customers.

Android is not a tablet OS, and Google shows its internal confusion by promoting Chrome OS for that role.

The Android market will become clogged by masses of horrible, buggy and insecure apps. Apple's App Store is truly the freest market in practical terms. With their supervision of the basic functionality and security of apps, the users have the widest choice of quality apps possible.

Google's latest scandal regarding privacy shows the company knows too much about its customers and what they give away for "free" actually comes at a high price. Once phone makers and carriers get sued for security breaches at Google, the support for Android will instantly dry up.