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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."

10 of 250 comments (clear)

  1. Yawn. by bennomatic · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Wake me up in six months, when the implications of Google's recent policy changes have been realized.

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    The CB App. What's your 20?
    1. Re:Yawn. by MrDoh! · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I'm wondering if this will only help actually.
      Where else are the phone makers going to get an OS/that many apps quick enough to compete with Apple?
      And if they don't like to be told the interface, they going to go to Microsoft that's even more restrictive?

      Don't know. Still too early to tell, but I don't think it'll be as doom and gloom as some are saying.

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      Waiting for an amusing sig.
  2. Re:Look at that! by thetoadwarrior · · Score: 3, Insightful

    While I love open source it's because there's a zillion phones that run android. I suspect if you compare any one Android model against RIM or Apple's offerings then it won't look so good. Combine that with the fact Android owners seem less keen on paying for apps and I think you end up with the iphone or even blackberry being more attractive to a developer despite android's growth.

  3. Android and the common human by errandum · · Score: 4, Insightful

    What people miss is that most of those 30ish % are from low end devices. Those devices are mostly crap and give out a bad impression about the OS.

    I'm not too confident that android growth will be as big in the following years. Google should set up some minimum specs for Android phones!

    (I'm the proud owner of an HTC Desire, so I'm not bashing. Just stating something that has been on my mind lately..)

  4. PC world or video game console world? by tepples · · Score: 4, Insightful

    We all know what happened. The most open of the platforms prevailed

    This is true among home computers. But whether the smartphone market shapes up to be like the home computer market (where open won) or the set-top video gaming market (where closed won) hasn't entirely been decided. Android is in the lead now, but I'm not sure how much of that comes from people avoiding the iPhone to avoid AT&T. This can change as more Verizon Wireless contracts hit their 24th month, and it can also change come iPhone 5 and Sony NGP. But on the other hand, Apple doesn't have a low-end phone for use with prepaid service, unlike Sprint's Virgin Mobile USA which has a few Android phones now, and Apple has historically chosen not to compete in the extreme low-end.

    1. Re:PC world or video game console world? by cynyr · · Score: 4, Insightful

      My bet is sadly on the closed one winning. Most people view phones* as appliances and as such they should just work.

      *I keep thinking of mine as a mini-laptop, but that still makes me a bit grumpy as i'd like to be able to script it, and tinker with it even more than CyanogenMOD will let me.

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      All of the above was encrypted with a Quad ROT-13 method. Unauthorized decryption is in violation of the DMCA.
    2. Re:PC world or video game console world? by by+(1706743) · · Score: 2, Insightful

      My bet is sadly on the closed one winning. Most people view phones* as appliances and as such they should just work.

      I think that's a very accurate assessment (though I don't even have a smart phone). I'm all for toys and openness; I cut my teeth on Slackware (using Debian currently), don't take my car to the mechanic for trivial stuff, fix my audio gear myself (picked up a Dyna ST-70 for free a while back...score!) etc. But I can see a day when I'll want a system -- be it an entertainment system, a car or a smartphone -- that "just works." And sadly, this is more easily achieved when a single manufacturer controls the hardware.

      I'll probably get modded into oblivion because I'm pointing out the good side of a controlling company, but that's just my opinion. (And for the record, I think Apple's being ridiculous in the limiting-what-you-can-run department. I think it would make the most sense to have "Apple Approved" apps, and a free-for-all. If you want something that Just Works (and, if Apple did their job reviewing it, isn't malware), then stick to the official app store. Else, well, eat your heart out.)

  5. Re:It's just a rehash of the PC world of the 1980s by clang_jangle · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Android is best compared to MS-DOS, oddly enough. It was about being a flexible OS that ran on a wide range of hardware from a wide range of vendors, and in many ways it maximized the freedom of developers and users alike. It did very little to dictate how programs could be implemented, who may use them, and how they may be distributed.

    Sort of, but MS-DOS was proprietary and ran on relatively open hardware, while Android is the other way around.

    The most open of the platforms prevailed, and the rest were basically crushed into obscurity....I suspect that the same thing might be happening today.

    Not likely. Unfortunately, devices without locked bootloaders are the exception, not the rule. Most Android devices are not really any more open than the Blackberry in practice.

    --
    Caveat Utilitor
  6. Re:Surprised? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I saw it personally with a couple small apps I built and released for iPhone and Android. Despite more downloads of the free version on androids, over 85% of my sales were for iPhone. Given the time tweaking for the different versions of Android vs iOS, the apps I'm building this year are all for the iPhone.

    The issue is, most developers follow that thought path. However, what I found is that the apps I want to pay for are better on iPhone. I don't want to pay the same price for fewer features, or pay more for the same features, just because I'm on Android. So, my options become paying them for an inferior product and reinforcing the practice.. or not buying the app.

  7. Re:Surprised? by BasilBrush · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Which infers that people prefer the Android phones (didn't say it was better, I said prefer) than Apple phones.

    People don't necessarily buy the product they prefer. Price is a consideration. And the vast number of cheap Android phones from many manufacturers explains the market share.

    So the 'fact' the Apple app market sells more than the Android market doesn't mean anything to me.

    Well maybe not. But it means everything to the developers. Which means most develop first for the iPhone, and then possibly port to Android.

    Android means choice

    Not of Apps it doesn't. iPhone has more and better choice of apps than Android for the reason stated above.

    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.

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