Android Steals Market
New data on mobile usage shows the number of smart phones continues to grow rapidly, increasing 12% from June of 2011 to 87.4 million in Sept. of 2011, and that the Android platforms continues to grain market share, hitting 44.8%. The data, which shows a three month average for the period ending Sept. 2011 and is based on a survey of over 30,000 U.S. mobile subscribers by the comScore MobiLens service, is notable because it once again highlights the growing importance of the Android platform for the mobile strategies of media and entertainment companies.
That survey also found that Samsung was the largest handset supplier in the U.S. with 25.3% of U.S. mobile subscribers, followed by LG (20.6%), Motorola (13.8%), Apple (10.2%) and RIM (7.1%).
LG, Motorola and RIM all lost market share while Samsung held steady at 25.3% and Apple saw a notable gain from 8.9% to 10.2%.
Overall, about 234 million Americans aged 13 and older used mobile devices.
The Google Android platform posted significant gains, with its market share increasing from 40.2% to 44.8% while the Apple platform grew from 26.6% to 27.4% in the September figures. RIM ranked third with 18.9% share, followed by Microsoft (5.6 percent) and Symbian (1.8 percent).
The data also highlighted the growing importance of mobile web and apps for users. About 42.9% used a browser in the September survey, up from 40.1% in the June data and 42.5% downloaded apps, up from 39.5% in the earlier period.
MORE THAN HALF of all smartphones sold in the third quarter were running Android, according to data from analyst Gartner.
Google’s Android operating system (OS) accounted for 52.5 per cent of smartphone sales, almost double the market share it had a year earlier, Gartner said.
Gartner analyst Roberta Cozza said, “Android benefited from more mass-market offerings, a weaker competitive environment, and the lack of exciting new products on alternative operating systems.” Not surprisingly, Nokia’s Symbian OS lost 20 percentage points from the previous year, accounting for 17 per cent of smartphone sales. Microsoft’s Windows Phone had only 1.5 per cent market share in the third quarter, but Windows Phone 7.5 Mango handsets are only just starting to ship in the fourth quarter. RIM, which has suffered from severe service outages recently, declined 4.4 percentage points from a year earlier to capture 11 per cent of the smartphone market in the third quarter.
Nokia retained the top spot with a 23.9 per cent of the overall mobile phone market, up from 22.8 percent in the second quarter. Samsung, LG, Apple, and ZTE were the other four that made up the top five vendors. Now one can see why Microsoft bought up Nokia, not that it matters really. No one really wants Windows on a phone or even a tablet.
According to Gartner this means that when it comes to worldwide sales, Android trounced the opposition with over 60 million smartphones sold. Its nearest rival was Symbian, which took 16.9 per cent of the market – a drop of 20 per cent when you compare the OS to how it was doing at the same time last year. When it comes to iOS, it also saw a drop in its share of the market, albeit a small one. Over 17 million iOS handsets were sold which equates to a 15 per cent market share, down from 16.6 per cent a year ago. Apple shouldn’t be too worried about this drop, however, as it is said to have happened because consumers were waiting for the iPhone 4S to arrive before making a purchase decision. RIM should start worrying though, as it lost over 4 per cent of its share and is now down to just 11 per cent, the reason that is cited is that the company has fallen out of favour with the US market.
Next year’s results should be even more interesting as we will see how much of an impact Microsoft’s Windows Phone OS will have on market share, which will be is laughable at best as they retain < 5% of marketshare.
