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Android Outsells iPhone In Last 6 Months
tomhudson writes "Despite all the hype about Apple's latest iPhone, Android has sold more in the last 6 months (27% of all smartphone sales) than Apple (23%). The gains for Android are coming at the expense of RIM (still #1 at 33%, down from 45% a year ago), Windows Mobile (11%, down from 20%) and the iPhone (down from 34% at it's peak 6 months ago). If the current trend continues, Android is expected to be #1 within the year."
Turns out Linux doesn't suck and it is good for something mainstream after all. I still haven't seen the real "year of the Linux desktop" but Android has already given us a year of the Linux phone, and we barely even realized it.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
The numbers for the iPhone are of course going to reflect that the apple crowd has been holding off and waited for the new generation iPhone 4. The numbers for Q3 will be more interesting.
And then again, who cares, it's just a phone.
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...but hasn't the iPhone sales been slow the past 6 months due to anticipation for the new model coming out last month?
Pretty good is actually pretty bad.
If this trend continues, Android will have 100% of the market in just over 8 years!
I love linear extrapolation.
A lot of that has to do with the fact that Nokia doesn't ship their best phones to the US. And really it's been a recent phenomenon for any good phones to make it to the US. Admittedly, that's largely because it's much more common in other parts of the world for people to have multiple phones or be willing to put up with beta gadgets.
The smartphone market in the US is consequently just starting to get going. And it shouldn't be shocking that Android with it's increasingly diverse set of options would be overtaking the iPhone and it's limited selection.
I am sorry, but this comparison is pretty crap.
RIM = 1 company
Apple = 1 company
Android = oodles of companies...
Its comparing apples to oranges here.
Of course you do see that Android is doing well. Something that I expected and it will continue. This is why I question RIM's, Microsoft's and Nokia's sanity of trying to go against either Apple or Android.
Though I wonder how long Android will do well. Here is the thing, people buy gadgets, but upgrade devices. With the iPhone 4 people upgraded. With RIM people upgraded. Nokia less so, and Android is an open question mark. I don't know either way and only time will tell.
"You can't make a race horse of a pig"
"No," said Samuel, "but you can make very fast pig"
One reason is that there are many more Android devices out there than anything else.
Blackberry has what, 4 current lines. iPhone only has one, most of the time. There are numerous Android phones on every carrier, pretty much.
And even people who want the iPhone can't get the latest one without spending a month on a waiting list, or I think their numbers would be higher. (Though this applies to Android in some devices like the Droid X or the HTC EVO).
It's most telling that Palm is flatlining and Windows Mobile has lost half of its already meager market share in the past year.
Notes:
- numbers are for new devices only (not total market share)
- does not include iPhone 4 - not a lot of people would buy an iPhone 3 in Q2 when new model was expected shortly
More interesting will be Q2 and Q3 totals combined when Q3 numbers are available. Then put BB6 and WP7 in the mix by year's end and it will get really interesting.
IN THE QUARTER. In the quarter. It's the biggest platform IN THE QUARTER.
Rather than admonishing other people to read your links, please read the story that you're talking about. They haven't caught up to anyone yet, they're just selling faster.
Ignore the 851% figure because it's meaningless. If I sell 1 phone in my first quarter and TEN phones in my second quarter, that's a growth of 1000% per quarter! All it tells us is that Android didn't have much market penetration before and it's up now.
In the end, this isn't news. There are MANY manufacturers using Android as a platform and only Apple using iOS as a platform. Apple is tied to the most hated major network in America, and Android isn't. The actual question is 'what took them so dang long?'
It's an excellent way to compare them. The strength of platforms like iPhoneOS, Android, WindowsCE, etc. is that you can run the same apps across all of the devices. The more devices there are out in the population, the more enticing it is for developers to develop for them. The more developers there are developing for a platform, the more decent quality apps there are, and the more decent quality apps there are the more people will want to buy into the platform. It's a cycle that accelerates at an increasing rate as the install base increases. It's what has made the Apple app store so successful up to this point and will work the same way for Android.
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It's a shame that AT&T held a gun to Jobs head to force Apple to sign an exclusive agreement with them.
And most important: multiple sources for applications.
You are welcome on my lawn.
AT&T's commercials assert that it covers 97% of Americans, but if you live in or spend much time in one of the areas (more than 3% of the map) it doesn't cover, the iPhone loses by default even if Apple's marketing is successful.
97% population does not cover 97% land area, it probably is closer to 60% or less land area.
I'm sure people in the comments will conveniently ignore those facts, especially the one about not including iPhone 4 sales. Many analysts say the iPhone 4 leak hampered 3GS sales because customers were waiting for the new model. Also, it's bizarre to be comparing an OS to one device. It's more accurate to compare Android to iOS, which would then include the iPad.
iPhone 4 + iPad = more than Android, sorry.
Nonsense. Windows Mobile = oodles of companies and it still fails.
This space for rent.
Actually, none of the big names ship their best phones to the US, sadly enough, except for Apple. One can just look at the phones offered in markets like South Korea or Japan to see what should be here in the US. Those places, there is actual broadcast TV that people can easily watch (without being dependent on the data bandwidth.)
Until Apple came out with the iPhone and woke people up in the US, when I showed them what a smartphone was able to do, the response was mainly, "who cares about Bluetooth or E-mail. I just want a phone that is thin and makes calls. Any more and that is what a laptop is for." Ironic how things change. It wasn't that long ago when everyone was lusting after RAZR models and people with smartphones were either geeks or corporate execs.
It's more accurate to compare Android to iOS, which would then include the iPad.
No, it's a valid comparison - the category is smartphone OS market share, which is a perfectly valid and meaningful category.
That was exactly my point and Windows vs. Mac is a good example. This is about as relevant as saying that Windows sells more OS in a quater than Mac. It's just kind of a 'duh' statement. Although Apple is extremely popular in the smartphone segment, they are only a single company. They can't hope to compete with every other smartphone vendor releasing an Android phone.
This would be significant if it was a 'Droid X outsells iPhone' headline. Instead, they are grouping a slew of hardware models together into one big group who happen to all use the same base OS, and then comparing them to a handset that only comes on a single piece of hardware from a single vendor.
The point of market share reports isn't like a sporting even where you cheer for your favorite team (fanboyism), but to help people understand the big picture of what is happening in the market.
For example: I need to migrate an enterprise application to a handheld computer platform, and this report makes me think I should start hiring engineers with knowledge of android instead of iOS or Windows Mobile developers.
And Apple may be the biggest individual seller of desktop computers (it was for a while, ISTR, don't know if that's still true) but the fact that MacOS has far less penetration than Windows means that MacOS is far less attractive for many application developers.
If the same thing happens with the mobile space, it will make native iOS apps less attractive to developers than other choices. Which has a feedback effect, as the decrease in iPhone-specific apps will reduce the incentive to buy into the platform for the apps.
In one corner you have Apple+ATT, and in the other Motorola + HTC + Samsung + LG + (like 10 other smaller manufactures) + Google + Verizon + Tmobile + Spint/Nextel + (like 10 other smaller carriers)
That's just not a winning fight for Apple. And even if they added other carries, the other carries are already selling the other devices. Apple's 1.5 product releases a year won't keep up. The installed user base won't keep up. The innovation won't keep up. I'll be honest, people keep talking about an iPhone on Verizon. I just don't see it happening. Verizon seems to be doing pretty good with Android right now.
So why it's not a valid comparison or whether it is or not, doesn't matter. The end game right now is bad for apple.