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Android Passes BlackBerry In US Market Share

Posted by timothy on from the king-for-a-day-but-that-damn-sword-above dept.

An anonymous reader writes "69.5 million people in the US owned smartphones during the three months ending in February 2011, up 13 percent from the preceding three-month period. For the first time, more Americans are using phones running Google's Android operating system than Research In Motion's BlackBerry, according to comScore. Having passed the iPhone in the preceding three-month period, this now means that Android has been crowned king in the US."

4 of 250 comments (clear)

  1. Surprised? by jhigh · · Score: 5, Informative

    Android is an operating system available on devices from numerous manufacturers. It was only a matter of time, given the level of control that both RIM and Apple maintain over the hardware that their operating system is available on.

    I'm a Droid user and a huge fan, but it is almost an unfair comparison. You're comparing an (relatively) open operating system with proprietary devices running proprietary software.

    --
    Social Engineering Expert: Because there is no patch for stupidity.
    1. Re:Surprised? by johnlcallaway · · Score: 3, Informative

      Better to consider .. what??? The story is pretty straight forward, more Android phones are being used than Apple phones. Which infers that more people are using them than are using Apple phones. Which infers that people prefer the Android phones (didn't say it was better, I said prefer) than Apple phones. I have all the apps I need on my Android, and no one has yet to show me an iPhone app that makes it worthwhile to switch. So the 'fact' the Apple app market sells more than the Android market doesn't mean anything to me. Except that iDrones have lots of excess cash to waste on apps that might even be free somewhere else.

      Android means choice, Apple is still the control-freak run company it always has been. Apple products have always appealed to those who just have to have the newest tech no matter what. Which means Apple products probably appeal to people with cash which means those people are probably willing to drop lots of bucks in the Apple store.

      It has always seemed like iDrones like having very little choice and doing what Apple says. I think doing any real thinking for themselves hurts too much.

      --
      I rarely read replies, it's my opinion and if you thought about your opinion a little more, I'm OK with that.
    2. Re:Surprised? by radio4fan · · Score: 3, Informative

      Hey whatever it takes to make you happy that you bought a cheap copy.

      Funny, as I've got an iPhone (3GS) and an Android phone (HTC Desire). I need both for testing mobile websites.

      The iPhone now gets used *solely* for testing websites.

      The Android phone is just better in most respects; gmaps/navigation, ability to play *any* video format, better reception (GSM and wifi), faster to navigate the UI (it's got a 'back' button!), vastly superior home screens and widgets, better battery life (and the option of a spare battery), better camera, bluetooth that's not intentionally crippled, SDcard support, hotspot that works out-of-the-box... Just better.

      All that goes to make me 'happy that I bought a cheap copy'.

      The iPhone wins hands-down on style and sound quality (holy shit the sound on the HTC is crap) but nothing else I can think of.

      I'm not an Apple-hater; I'm typing this on my MacBook and I've owned Macs for 20 years (SE/30 FTW!)

  2. Re:Yawn. by eparker05 · · Score: 3, Informative

    I assume you are referring to the continued feet dragging with the Honeycomb source.

    I would like to start by saying that many of the people complaining about this are people with little knowledge of the Android development cycle. For starters, the newest version of Android is always released closed source so that Open Handset Alliance partners get premium access. Eventually the versions are all released under the Apache license. The only difference between Honeycomb and previous versions is that Google is slowing down the release a bit. They have not reversed their commitment to open source it, they just delayed it.

    One of the most common complaints about Android is the fragmentation. This is one way that Google can slowly rein this in. If they are completely closed the source and locked the platform they will be much more like Apple. If they are completely open it will be more like Linux (Android distributions anybody?). It is in the middle ground where they can be both a little open, yet still control the platform and keep quality and homogeneity high.