Google Inc.’s Android has overtaken Apple Inc.’s iPhone in the high-profile smartphone sweepstakes, according to one market research firm.
New smartphone subscribers choosing Android handsets accounted for 27 percent of U.S. smartphone sales in the first half of the year, surpassing the 23 percent share held by Apple’s wildly popular phones, the Nielsen Company said Monday.
The report is the latest indication that Google’s smartphone software, which powers handsets made by device makers such as Motorola Inc. and HTC Corp. , continues to gain momentum in the most critical segment of the mobile market.
Research In Motion Ltd.’s BlackBerry handset continues to top the category with 33 percent, but its share has been slipping as consumers seem to prefer the larger number of apps and superior browsing experience on Android and Apple phones.
The Canadian device handset maker is widely expected on Tuesday to unveil a series of new devices built with a new operating system it hopes will reverse the trend.
Nielsen said sales of multipurpose smartphones, which let users browse the Web, check email, share pictures and run thousands of apps, accounted for 25 percent of the U.S. mobile market in the last quarter. The research group predicted smartphones will overtake feature phones in the U.S. market by the end of 2011.
Google gives its mobile software away for free to handset makers, with the aim of getting more people to use their phones to access the Internet and help the Internet search giant grab a share of the mobile ad market, which is expected to reach $593 million in the U.S. this year.
Android has received a big boost from Verizon Wireless, jointly owned by Verizon Communications Inc. and Vodafone Group Plc , which has aggressively marketed Motorola’s Droid line of phones.
Google said last month that 160,000 Android-powered devices were being activated worldwide every day, a stunning number that would put Android on a pace to sell more than 58 million phones in a year–roughly the same number of Apple iPhones sold since it hit the market in 2007.
Shares in Google were up 1.4 percent at $491.58, and Apple shares rose 1.7 percent to $261.60.
This doesn’t mean anything as Android is on what, 10-20 phones? and all of them put together just barely outsold ONE model of the iPhone that was at the end of its shelf life. I’d like to see what the second half stats look like with the iPhone 4. Especially up against more worthy adversaries such as the Evo 4G, Droid X, and the Samsung Captivate phones.
I love my Mac and all my Apple stuff and this just can’t be true. I realize that my hero Steve Jobs lied and said the iPhone 4 antenna problems were user related, but then he kinda said Apple did screw up. Steve – Please tell me that this story is not true and that the iPhone is more popular. Love, Al
Ed, that’s irrelevant, as the defining characteristic of all those phones is Android. Yes, there’s only one iPhone model, thanks to Apple’s draconian closed system methods that are not unlike the very thing people hated Microsoft for in the past. The point is even if there were only one Android phone, people would all just by that one, and it would likely still outsell the iPhone. The fact that Android offers variety and hardware competition is a good thing, and Apple should be condemned for not doing the same.
i think the way things were suppose to pan out is google creates an OS for mobile devices. the device makers take the OS and make it their own. what happened is you are getting the same OS spread across multiple device manufacturers. so in reality the only difference is the name on the phone. so we have multiple devices using the android os and one using iOS. makes sense that android would outsell apple. where is the story? the story would be if we could see how many of these android devices are sold individually compared to the iphone. there is a new ‘killer’ released every few months, each time to big hupla then nothing. how many two for one iphone deals have we seen?
Mike,
Your logic is flawed..you said that if the Andriod software was only available on one phone everyone who bought one would still have bought an Andriod phone. There are way too many reasons why people buy the phones they do to be able to make an accurate guess on that. My guess is that there is a large portion of the Andriod customers bought their phones for something other than the fact that it has an Andriod OS. I have an iPhone and I think that the Andriod OS is a quality product!! I am glad to see it doing well…like you said, compitition is good. Even if the competion is Android vs iPhone.
The Droid, and Droid X, are vastly superior to most smartphones. It is good to see Motorola give Apple a run for its money. Give Apple kudos for building a loyal, vocal following.
I personally prefer the Android friendly devices for all the reasons said above–Apple is draconian about controlling quality while maximizing their profits. They definitely stifle/intimidate their own third party developers. This will eventually take a bite out of Apple. Look at what Apple is doing to Adobe Flash! Bullies.
News broke on Monday that Android smartphones are staring to kick the sh*t out of RIM and Apple with new buyers.
According to a Nielsen report, in 2010 Android-based phones accounted for 27% of the overall smartphone sales in the United States compared to iPhone sales that only accounted for 23%. And that includes the iPhone4’s opening weekend sales of 1.7 million units.
More on this here via the TMV website: http://www.themusicvoid.com/2010/08/here-come-the-droids/