Android is huge. According to Andy Rubin, 500,000 Android devices are activated every single day around the world — not exactly something to balk at. But, it also appears that Apple’s iPhone has found its second wind these days. A recent survey from Nielsen has shown that Apple’s iPhone is increasing in market share, despite Android’s continued growth.
From the AllThingsD Blog:
‘Android continues to be the most popular smartphone operating system, with 38 percent of smartphone consumers owning Android devices’ Nielsen found. However, while Android also leads among those who recently purchased a new smartphone, it is the Apple iPhone that has shown the most growth in recent months.
Just earlier this week we heard reports from analysts stating that the Verizon iPhone slowed the Android market, leading TechCrunch to even suggest that the iPhone 5 could reverse the trend entirely, which could be a stretch, but at this point, anything is possible.
In April NPD showed evidence of the iPhone market growing and Android declining, then Nielsen confirmed it in another report. IDC data then showed Android hitting its apex in March and tapering off again. And then BTIG released another report showing the iPhone outselling Android in the US. Either all of these guys are getting their data from the same source, or something interesting is starting to happen here.
We’ve long argued in these parts that exclusivity contracts were largely to blame for the long term stagnation of the iPhone (if you can even call it that), but with Verizon selling 2.2 million iPhone 4s in a couple of short months, it seems like there could be some evidence to support that exclusivity was a bit of a problem. Apple has since moved to not only provide cheap phones through subsidies, but they’ve been rolling out unlocked versions globally for well over a year now, and in some cases two. Even T-Mobile, who doesn’t have a contract with Apple, has approximated that as many as one million of their users are using unlocked iPhones on their network.
Apple’s game for global smartphone dominance may not end with the elimination of exclusivity contracts and unlocked phones. There have been continuous reports from journalists, bloggers, and analysts that Apple is working on a couple of models for the future. Some have even gone so far as to suggest that Apple could release an iPhone 4S and an iPhone 5 at the same time, while also either selling the iPhone 3GS or iPhone 4 at a severely discounted price. Android has just over 20 phones on four major carriers in the U Swhile Apple had one phone on one carrier for most of the year, so it’s no surprise that Android was running away with the market. That could change though. If any of these latest iPhone rumors are to be believed, Apple could have as little as two phones on the market, and as many as four.
Things are about to get really interesting in the next coupld of months with the iPhone 5 and Ice Cream Sandwich.
Source: AllThingsD
The iPhone will have a lot of competition. ALL of the android high end phones, not to mention, nexus (prime(?). I want to see how this will play out, especially when there are quad-core android phones on the horizon
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Likeiphone has the best app market hands down.. android phones are like PCs super powerful specs but boring as hell to actually use and look at...
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