iPhone closes in on Android in growing U.S. smartphone market
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 ]
Comments
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.
"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?
This comes from the head fandroid himself Andy Fandroid Rubin.
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
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.
That qualifies for the "Doomed" tag doesn't it?
Not quite... Android hasn't hit "beleaguered" yet.
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?
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.
Google doesn't sell Android, nor does it sell phones.
What's that got to do with the price of tea in China?
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]
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...
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.
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.
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?
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".
The lazy man's way to majority share. And a lousy User Experience for hapless consumers.