Apple continues to gain US smartphone share as iOS hits 27% - Page 3

What part of Google FINED $500 million for aiding in the sale of ILLEGAL drugs, do you not understand?

The law is quite clear.

Wrong. The drugs themselves are not illegal. To the contrary, the Canadian pharmacies were (typically)filling legitimate and legal prescriptions written by licensed US doctors for legal drugs. The only part that was illegal was filling that prescription thru a Canadian pharmacy and having them shipped to a US address.

Thus, rendering the drugs, illegal.

Again the law is clear.

I don't think that's accurate. The drugs aren't illegal, the method of distribution is.

Nielsen has posted their latest smartphone platform results, for the second quarter ending July31. Largely in agreement with Comscore, the source for the original story here. Not a lot of change from the previous report period, with Android up 1% to 40% of the US market, and Apple steady at 28%, no change.

The bigger story here is the battle for the hearts and minds of "late adopters", or those that have yet to buy a smartphone but want too. Big surprise here IMO.

"Researchers used the opportunity of the market share breakdown to study what platforms were preferred by certain kinds of buyers. Despite Android's image, the iPhone was more popular among early adopters, at 38 percent wanting an iPhone next to Google's 37 percent. In the largest group, the early majority, the ratio was near-even with Android interest just slightly up at 36 versus 34 percent. Android's widest advantage was with late adopters, where 32 percent were already settled on Android and 23 percent iPhones; 30 percent of those weren't sure, however.

So according to Nielsen, a far higher percentage of those who have yet to buy a smartphone have decided to go with Android rather than Apple. And nearly a third of those surveyed have yet to make up their mind.

This goes completely against the general opinions here that Apple's iPhone is much more desired than any of the Android products, which only appeal to those that can't afford Apple, or whose carrier doesn't offer them. With a third of the Late Adopters, those not yet owning a smartphone, claiming to want an Android phone when they eventually get a smartphone, it's apparent from this report that consumer's are making Android the preferred choice when given both Apple and Android as an option.

Of course these figures may change, and likely will, once the new iPhones are released later this year. But contrary to what some bloggers and analysts may want to believe, Android is now perceived by consumers to be at least a comparable choice to the iPhone.

http://www.electronista.com/articles...phone.expense/

1) You mean they are measuring those that want to buy a smartphone at the beginning of its release cycle compared to the end of its release cycle? How does Android have any late adopters with models renewed so frequently, unless we're talking about drastically lowered price points of old kit?

2) Only 1% gain for Android? How many new Android-based devices have come out in the last 15 months? Was there nothing new for this past quarter?

I think you're misreading the report Solipsism.

What it indicates is that from March to June Android gained 1% greater US smartphone market share, apparently at the expense of RIM, while Apple saw no increase or decrease.

The Early Adopters were those that purchased their first smartphone quite some time ago, and the related figure is the percentage that would choose Android or Apple for their next phone. Those users are probably the most wedded to the platform they chose "back in the day" and least likely to change allegiance now. The Early Majority are those that purchased their first smartphone more recently, and again the percentages are for what platform they want for their next phone.

Late adopters are those who have yet to buy a smartphone at all. Still using featurephones or no mobile phone at all. That group is slanting heavily pro-Android compared to the "I want an iPhone" crowd. At least according to Nielsen.

@ Gatorguy,

You're right. I am misreading the report.

I finally found the link to the original survey results at Nielsen. The charts show all but one category of smartphone buyers/owners as preferring Android over iOS for their next smartphone purchase.

http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/?p=28790

When you consider an entire market of buyers it's unusual that a single product would beat all the vendors with an entire catalog of options in any category.

I don't think anyone here has suggested that the iPhone will beat all Android-based devices in the market in terms of units sold. That's just ridiculously rare. Sure, Apple did it with the PMP market and looks to be doing it again with the tablet market, but for Apple to win they don't have to monopolize the number of units sold. Just look at their smartphone and PC business dominating the profits.

Agreed Solipsism.

The survey results on market share are no big surprise, and really don't tell us much. The revealing part is the evidence that Android is really a preferred choice by the majority of current users as well as those yet to buy a smartphone. That flies in the face of "conventional wisdom" saying that, given a choice between Apple and Android, buyers would overwhelmingly prefer an iPhone. According to Nielsen that's not true.

It doesn't seem to indicate "given a choice with a ll thing being equal", it seems to suggest that more buyers assume they will purchase an Android-based phone over an iPhone.

Even if we ignore prices (which I think are pretty much equal when you consider the TCO of a smartphone) if we acknowledge the iPhone is only on 2 carriers in the US it would be nice to know how many of these potential Android-based phone buyers are on T-Mobile, Sprint and MVNOs that aren't considering switching carriers. How did Neilsen balance the users?

It sounds as faulty as saying the iPhone would be as overwhelmingly popular on other carriers as it is on AT&T without considering the poor Android-based options AT&T had compared to the other carriers.