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Android Jumps Past iOS in Overall U.S. Smartphone Usage

Too bad Android makers are basically giving them away to gain market share.

And doesn't Nokia still making more money on ovi than Google's android store?
 
Don't see how this is news really. 2+2=4 webOS, Winmo7, etc.. whatever is on the sheer amount of devices Android is on will have larger numbers. Apple does things their way to make money on the hardware as well which = lower share.

Hopefully HP does something with webOS and MS makes strides in their mobile area so we have a lot of choice and not eventually 80%+ Android stuff.

Nothing against Android here, just saying most of this is obvious and a no sh** type of news.
 
Where do these survey companies get there data from? I have NEVER been asked any questions about stuff like this. Plus with statistics you can fudge the numbers to represent just about anything.
 
Saladinos said:
Apple needs to respond. I would prefer them to do it with an iOS overhaul and some diversification of their product line. Apple won't sacrifice margins significantly, so to expand market share they should appeal to more people and step up advertising on the cheaper previous-gen models.
Click to expand...

Apple can't, it would wreck havoc on their margins. A cheaper phone isn't just one that you pay $50 for and then end up with the same contract as the regular one. It's a cheap phone that you can buy without a contract.

And they would also lose the people, and there are lots here, just in this thread, who talk about exclusivity and being part of a club that not everyone can join.

Ferrari doesn't make cheap cars for everyone. But while most people would rather like to drive a Ferrari than a Toyota, most people would prefer to own Toyota. They make more money even if their cars aren't as exclusive. (Also, Ferrari is now owned by Fiat.)
 
brendu said:
One interesting thing to note. Apple held 25% of recent acquirers with 2 phone models. The iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS. They are also on only 2 carriers, and have only been with Verizon for part of the time leading up to the march survey. Android however is on dozens of handsets and all four US carriers. I would say apple is doing amazingly well when you consider those specifics.

I am not worried about iOS not having a larger chunk of the market, I am blown away that it has 25%.
Click to expand...

Too bad Apple didn't see the light and make its iPhone available across all carriers.
 
Apple should offer all current blackberry subscribers 50 bucks off an iphone for a 6 month window and take RIMMS % of the pie.

That would really make it a two horse race with Windows and whoever else under 10%.
 
Can someone post the updated chart on which OS is making more profit, not only for the company behind the OS, but for developers? 🙄

As much as I want Android to succeed, being a google fan, the OS along with the app store(s) and apps are not on the same level as iOS.

As a consumer, I could careless if Android has 99% of the market, I want the best ecosystem.

Nokia/Symbian dominated the phone market, at least worldwide, they are doing what now? As they say, the bigger they are, the harder they fall.

Apple has been doing just fine for the last 10 years or so sticking to its devoted followers, they are not going to start releases 10 iPhone versions to compete to save their market share. But I'm going to guess they will continue to pull in the most cash.
 
dexthageek said:
Where do these survey companies get there data from? I have NEVER been asked any questions about stuff like this. Plus with statistics you can fudge the numbers to represent just about anything.
Click to expand...

Interesting. I say the same thing when the news stations announce popularity polls of the President, healthcare reform, etc.
 
Small White Car said:
iPads ABSOLUTELY contribute to that. If someone owns an iPad and bought a bunch of iOS apps, which smartphone do you think he's gonna buy next?
Click to expand...

Except IMO its iPhone user buying iPads, not the other way around.

Having bought plenty of apps was tying me into iPhone for my next phone,
now I have an iPad - I feel less tied to iPhone and feel more free to buy an android...
 
Number 41 said:
Once again, Apple's stubborn insistance on not licensing out their OS will lead to the marginalization of their hardware. Once iOS hardware is marginalized, you'll see developers shift their focus away to the Android platform -- which will see better app releases and better integration between mobile and tablet OS.

The handwriting is on the wall for Apple. They lost the desktop battle because they were too focused on short-term profit (selling the computer + software) and now they've lost the mobile battle because they were, again, too focused on short-term profit (selling the phone + the OS).
Click to expand...

Apple is a hardware company! That's what they do!

Of course Google licenses out their Android OS... that's all they can do.

You keep saying "Apple lot the battle..."

Which battle is that? Apple just sold 18 million iPhones this past quarter... and 16 million iPhones the previous quarter. Any other manufacturer would KILL for those numbers... especially considering Apple only makes 5 phones. How many Android phones are there?

"Android" is simply some software from Google that you can find on 50+ phones. Sure... if you combine them all, their numbers are greater than Apple's numbers.

But market share isn't the goal... that's just a fanboy argument.
 
LOLaMac said:
Except that each and every single person who has purchased an Android phone could have purchased an iPhone instead. The fact there is one Android phone or ten Android phones is irrelevant. Every one of those people could have chose to buy an iPhone. They didn't.
Click to expand...

Only true in the sense that every Honda Fit owner could have chose to buy an Audi R8 but didn't.

Not every Android device is purchased. My brother has one only because IT WAS FREE (and he has no clue how to use even 10% of the functions). He has never once purchased an app.
 
LOLaMac said:
The fact there is one Android phone or ten Android phones is irrelevant. Every one of those people could have chose to buy an iPhone. They didn't.
Click to expand...

Well, the fact is that there is one iPhone, and ten Android phones. But anyway, of course this fact is relevant. If I have 10 chances to do something, and only one chance to do something else... how often do you think the 1 in 10 chance is going to come around.... maybe 1 in 10 times?

That's like saying the people who *lose* the lottery should have just picked the winning numbers. People choose phones, or lottery numbers for various reasons. The products that tend to be pushed upon them, or are more readily available, are usually the ones that people end up walking out the door with.

The 90% of PC users *should* have just bought a Mac as well. Doesn't mean the PC is better, but there are many more circumstances under which someone buys something; cost, availability, etc.
 
There are phone models that run some variant of Android from ultra-cheap to ultra-high-end. That clearly makes Android-based phones applicable to a wider audience. But what's more is that some manufacturers have developed their own operating systems based on Android source code without the Google services -- basically using Google's code as their own jumpstart. All these phones are counted as "Android" -- the sheer size of the umbrella that is known as "Android" clearly makes this the new defacto standard for any manufacturer other than Apple, Nokia or HP.

The problem with these statistics is that they make the assumption that there is an "Android Experience" and an "iOS Experience" -- this is hardly the case since the Android experience is varied, and Google does not benefit from every Android device sale, where Apple does benefit from every iOS device sale.

Certainly, one can cite the fact that every manufacturer puts their own spin on "Android" and they run a specific version with a specific UI overlay and they have a specific set of supported resolutions with a specific set of apps that will work for that device (hardly the Microsoft Windows scenario of the 1990s). These manufacturers will likely be falling in line with Google's new rules with regards to timely access to the latest Android version and will continue to produce good and better phones with less-varied experiences.

But looking further than that, Android (pre-Honeycomb) is open source and many have taken the opportunity to force Google completely out of the Android equation.
- Verizon sells Android phones with Bing Search
- Barnes and Noble updates Nook Color with Android-sans-Google variant
(including their own marketplace)
- Tapas and OMS are Chinese "rivals" to Android that are in fact based on
the open-source Android code base (again removing Google services --
and their millions of sales are counted among these numbers).

I think if you told Steve Jobs that in 2011 he would only have 25% market share with the iPhone he would be ecstatic. However, he would not be ecstatic to know that somebody had ripped off his iPhone experience and was attempting to commoditize it. Google only cares about one thing: inevitability. Android innovation will cease once they have enough market share of Android devices that actually push the Google services and advertisements. Google is not in this to make the best mobile OS -- they are in it to ensure they are not locked out of advertising dollars (or having to pay Apple for the right to advertise) -- it seems they have done that.

Steve Jobs said of Google "they want to kill the iPhone and we won't let them". The truth of the matter is that Android will not "kill" the iPhone, but will continue to be the primary competitor and market-share leader for quite some time. In order for Android's surge to change, Apple would need to have phone models at every price point and more frequent releases. But that's kinda like telling Porsche that they don't have enough market-share and need to produce a cheaper car to gain market-share.

Apple should continue to focus on iOS as a computing platform -- where they still have an overall mobile OS lead (when including iPod and iPad). But Apple needs to keep in mind that when those dumb-phone users who just decided they wanted a smartphone since they could upgrade to Android for free may eventually want a tablet as well when the price comes down. Those folks who are Android smart-phone users may opt for the "Android" name even if the actual "Android Experience" differs. Apple needs to have some strategy to secure mind-share for their future buyers.

Remember that 12 years ago many many people still used pay phones to make calls while they were out and about or simply went without. Now you are hard pressed to find a pay-phone because everybody has a mobile phone. Those mobile-phone buyers are now shifting to smart-phones, and the cheap upgrade is clearly "Android". In another 5 to 10 years we may see the same thing happen with tablets being pervasive. If I were Apple, I would want to do everything to ensure that those smart-phone users are hooked on iOS instead of Android.

Now all this is based on the assumption that your motivation is to have your company make billions and billions of dollars. Maybe Steve Jobs motivation is just to make the best darn tech gadgets in the world -- maybe he does not care about owning the entire market, but only a good portion of it. I personally prefer iOS devices so my only vested interest here is that Apple keep producing new and better devices and maintains enough leverage to tell the carriers how things are going to be and enough market to share to ensure the app store continues to flourish. I don't want to go back to the days of relying on the carriers for software updates and I don't want to be waiting and hoping that some app developer may eventually port to the platform I am using -- two things Android users still have to deal with.
 
My friend brought his Xoom over to show me. I was excited to check it out since I had never seen one. He ended up returning it and getting an iPad 2 (online order since they aren't in stock). I didn't even try to sell him on the iPad but his Xoom couldn't even play video without dropping frames and audio sync.

I'm not a huge fanboi or anything. I wish iOS was more of a real OS as opposed to mobile, and had less restrictions, but it's still way more usable than the Xoom.
 
Deceptive Report

Let's not forget, Apple iOS encompasses more then just iPhones. If you included the iPad and iPod Touch which both run Apple iOS then Apple's market share is still ahead of Android.
 
add me to another purchaser of android phone. i myself have iphone. i wanted to buy a smartphone for a family member. considered iphone but one thing that drove me away from iphone was the requirement of a pc to activate it. no such requirement for android.
 
shartypants said:
As much as I want to see Apple sell phones, I also like to see healthy competition to keep away anti-trust issues. Apple is for people who like quality high-end stuff and Android is for Kmart shoppers 😉
Click to expand...
umm there are a lot of high end Android phones.
Apple sells cheap ass phone as well (iPhone 3GS) so it is in the Kmart shopper market is well.

eh270 said:
For once, I'd like to see a pie chart that includes iPod Touch and iPad, which also run iOS. What's the Android device equivalent of the iPod touch?
Click to expand...


I would not see that as useful. For a cell phone I would hate iOS but for a portable MP3 player the iPod iOS is great but I would never want it as a phone.
Lets look at smart phone only which means you can not count the iPod. Different market different rules.
Consultant said:
Too bad Android makers are basically giving them away to gain market share.

And doesn't Nokia still making more money on ovi than Google's android store?
Click to expand...

And that argument is not worthless as it clear that even with the iPhone on Verizon iOS is losing ground in the smart phone market.
 
furi0usbee said:
Well, the fact is that there is one iPhone, and ten Android phones. But anyway, of course this fact is relevant. If I have 10 chances to do something, and only one chance to do something else... how often do you think the 1 in 10 chance is going to come around.... maybe 1 in 10 times?
Click to expand...

That's rather flawed reasoning. Unless you actually believe that people buying a smartphone will just pick one randomly. The outcome here isn't random, nor is the chance for every outcome 1/10.
 
dba7dba said:
add me to another purchaser of android phone. i myself have iphone. i wanted to buy a smartphone for a family member. considered iphone but one thing that drove me away from iphone was the requirement of a pc to activate it. no such requirement for android.
Click to expand...

They will activate it for you in store so that shouldn't have been an issue.
 
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