Apple Overtakes Research in Motion in U.S. Smartphone Usage Share

[gnasher729]

Nokia sold about 26 million smartphones the last quarter. Let's imagine that only *half* of that people will get a Nokia Windows Phone 7 in Q4/11 then WP7 will be available on about 16 million phones (13 million Nokia + about 3 million HTC/Samsung/LG/Dell/...) per quarter. With these numbers WP7 soon will be the next big competitor to iOS.

But why would people buy a Nokia Windows phone? Nokia used to sell Symbian phones, and for many years (until around 2007) they were the best you could buy. Plenty of people kept buying them, although in shrinking numbers, when better phones became available. But now there are no Symbian phones anymore. Since all these Nokia customers have to switch to something different, why would they switch to a Windows phone? Most of them use Windows at work, they know how bad it is, and they wouldn't want it in their private life if they got paid. The huge majority of these people will switch to iPhone or Android.

 

[newagemac]

So Apple continues to grow its marketshare and has a whopping 26% all to themselves while its competitors using Android are splitting up only 36% between ALL of them. And the rest not using Android are still losing marketshare.

Holy crap Apple is killing its competitors!

 

[Consumers.unite]

So Apple continues to grow its marketshare and has a whopping 26% all to themselves while its competitors using Android are splitting up only 36% between ALL of them. And the rest not using Android are still losing marketshare.

Holy crap Apple is killing its competitors!

Apple will awalys have the profits.

 

[OllyW]

Yes, that's my point. In your case your geek friends went with iPhones, in other cases they go for Android, but they are choosing based on tech features that fit their needs and wants. They do not generally choose based on what's the cheapest.

Your non-geeky friends went with Android because they are available and cheap. That's my point. If all those phone manufacturers switched from Android to Windows, for example, your non-geeky friends would then be buying cheap Windows phones, and the Win Phone market share would jump overnight. And it wouldn't be because of demand for Windows...

I agree. They buy them because they are similar to iPhones and are inexpensive. If iPhones cost the same they would probably buy them instead.

The phone OS isn't a consideration for them. I even had to explain to one friend that his phone was running Android, he'd never heard of it before.

 

[Dcuellar]

How many different smartphones did Android have to be on to have this market share? By default they should be at the top. This doesn't mean they have made more money than Apple or RIM have selling phones with their proprietary OS's.

The problem I see with Android is that there are so many variations in phones that the user experience will never be the same from one consumer to another. Naturally, the advantage of taking this approach of providing only software for phones is that your market share will be greater because you have greater exposure. That doesn't mean the brand value has increased though. For all we know many of the consumers are not educated enough to specifically ask for a phone with an Android OS...instead they are asking for the cheapest.

My household consists of 2 adults and 3 children. All 3 children are approaching the age where they will be asking for cell phones. When my wife and I decide to get them the phones Android's market share will be 3/5 of our household where Apple's will only be 2/5. There's no way I'm going to buy them the more expensive iPhone...

In my mind the iPhone has greater brand value than any other phone on the market. Brand value goes a long way.

 

[Themaeds]

For all we know many of the consumers are not educated enough to specifically ask for a phone with an Android OS...instead they are asking for the cheapest.

My household consists of 2 adults and 3 children. All 3 children are approaching the age where they will be asking for cell phones. When my wife and I decide to get them the phones Android's market share will be 3/5 of our household where Apple's will only be 2/5. There's no way I'm going to buy them the more expensive iPhone...

In my mind the iPhone has greater brand value than any other phone on the market. Brand value goes a long way.

I love this general assumption that everyone who isnt OS educated just walks into a cell store and asks for the cheapest phone available. If we apply a little logic to this wouldn't the phone with the best brand awareness be the first choice for someone who is "In the market" and not tech savvy?

Maybe this so called "Idiot" consumer was able to walk into a store and make an educated decision based on what they saw, felt and heard when trying out a phone.

 

[Consumers.unite]

How many different smartphones did Android have to be on to have this market share? By default they should be at the top. This doesn't mean they have made more money than Apple or RIM have selling phones with their proprietary OS's.

The problem I see with Android is that there are so many variations in phones that the user experience will never be the same from one consumer to another. Naturally, the advantage of taking this approach of providing only software for phones is that your market share will be greater because you have greater exposure. That doesn't mean the brand value has increased though. For all we know many of the consumers are not educated enough to specifically ask for a phone with an Android OS...instead they are asking for the cheapest.

My household consists of 2 adults and 3 children. All 3 children are approaching the age where they will be asking for cell phones. When my wife and I decide to get them the phones Android's market share will be 3/5 of our household where Apple's will only be 2/5. There's no way I'm going to buy them the more expensive iPhone...

In my mind the iPhone has greater brand value than any other phone on the market. Brand value goes a long way.

______

Actually the Android brand is really high android matches Iphone when it comes to "most desirable smartphone polls", and has a really high satisfaction rate, not as high as Apple but right up there, so you are wrong.

 

[Consumers.unite]

How many different smartphones did Android have to be on to have this market share? By default they should be at the top. This doesn't mean they have made more money than Apple or RIM have selling phones with their proprietary OS's.

The problem I see with Android is that there are so many variations in phones that the user experience will never be the same from one consumer to another. Naturally, the advantage of taking this approach of providing only software for phones is that your market share will be greater because you have greater exposure. That doesn't mean the brand value has increased though. For all we know many of the consumers are not educated enough to specifically ask for a phone with an Android OS...instead they are asking for the cheapest.

My household consists of 2 adults and 3 children. All 3 children are approaching the age where they will be asking for cell phones. When my wife and I decide to get them the phones Android's market share will be 3/5 of our household where Apple's will only be 2/5. There's no way I'm going to buy them the more expensive iPhone...

In my mind the iPhone has greater brand value than any other phone on the market. Brand value goes a long way.

________

Others will argue that the good thing about android, there is no one size fits all.

 

[Dcuellar]

I love this general assumption that everyone who isnt OS educated just walks into a cell store and asks for the cheapest phone available. If we apply a little logic to this wouldn't the phone with the best brand awareness be the first choice for someone who is "In the market" and not tech savvy?

Maybe this so called "Idiot" consumer was able to walk into a store and make an educated decision based on what they saw, felt and heard when trying out a phone.

No.. Brand awareness means they will also be aware of the price associated with it. If they are not aware of the price, and that happens to play a factor in their buying decision, then they will be attracted to the phones that offer similar features. It's the equivalent to Walmart or Publix selling their own brand of corn, soda, chips, etc.

 

[Dcuellar]

And that doesn't make them "idiot" consumers. That just means they they are price-sensitive and the iPhone's price does not fit their budget.

 

[erzhik]

The smart phone numbers are more important from an investors point of view.

The iphone basically destroyed Nokia and now Android phones are finishing the job. For some reason the poor performance of Nokia stock is spilling over onto RIM. Although there have been stories about their poor performance too. I guess since they have both had negative stories, investors back of both if they back off one.

iPhone never destroyed Nokia, it didn't even come close to touching it. WTF are you talking about? Newsflash, US market is not the only and definitely not the largest phone market in the world. China market and India markets are far larger, and this is where Nokia dominates (including some European countries). Just so your 12 year old mind knows, Nokia created smartphones and we wouldn't have smartphones of today if it wasn't for Nokia. Get your fanboyism out of your rear cushion.

 

[Dcuellar]

______

Actually the Android brand is really high android matches Iphone when it comes to "most desirable smartphone polls", and has a really high satisfaction rate, not as high as Apple but right up there, so you are wrong.

Do you always contradict yourself?

 

[Rodimus Prime]

RIM is still doing very well. If Apple had come out with the Blackberry after RIM's had come up with the iPhone then Apple wouldn't even have 1% of the market. The ability that RIM has to sell Blackberry phones against better phones is amazing.

Rim still has its bread and butter and that is enterprise and RIM is not going to hurt that just to court the finky consumer market. Remember in the consumer world what is hot today is cold tomorrow. It is not exactly the most stable market.

All the geeks I know have got iPhones. My non-geeky friends are all starting to update their dumb phones to Android phones because they don't cost as much as the iPhone.

Depends. Geeks I know at school in the Computer Engineering and CS department it goes Android, Blackberry then iPhone way down on the list. In a class of 30+ students you might and I mean MIGHT have 2 iPhones in the entire class. 10-15+ android phones and then 5-6 blackberry. Dumb phones having a small handful. Hell I have seen Windows Mobile have more phones than iPhones. Android is the one taking everything.

Top it off a lot of those blackberry's and Android are from Verizon and AT&T. Add to it talking to them they have zero intersted in going iPhone. Blackberry users for their next phone it pretty much blackberry Android or WP7. iPhone does not come up.

We agree the iPod is a very good media player but just do not like iOS for our cell phone.

Especially since Apple has had quarter-to-quarter share drops before. It always depends. If you release something new one quarter, the next quarter have nothing new and just keep pushing out the same model, you might have a month-to-month or quarter-to-quarter drop.

It happens. Heck, this isn't the first time Apple passes by RIM in market share, but RIM picks it back up. They've been trading spots for a while now. Android definitely blew by both of them though.

In the end, all are winners.

Yep month to month or Quarter to Quarter comperisons are not worth much. I rather see year to year views.

Also marketshare is meaning less and less because they can loss market share but still show growth. Just means the market is growing faster than they are but they are still doing well in the case of RIM.

 

[Oletros]

And that doesn't make them "idiot" consumers. That just means they they are price-sensitive and the iPhone's price does not fit their budget.

Galaxy S, Desire HD, etc have morelesss the same price than iPhone and here in Spain they are the Android phones more sold.

 

[Hueyfreeman]

I think the problem with RIM is that other platforms are taking their thunder. For instance people say the I phpne is the easiest smart phone to use. Anyone who has ever used one knows that they are super easy to use. A brain dead monkey can set up an appointment with his zoo keeper on a black berry.

I do think it may be time for RIM to ditch its os and go with another. Of they go with windows phone 7 it could be a major win for both pf them. If they go android they may instantly be known as the first bussiness class android phone. And the combination would shutdown any gain M$ hopes to.get.

 

[Dcuellar]

Galaxy S, Desire HD, etc have morelesss the same price than iPhone and here in Spain they are the Android phones more sold.

So if you take the most sold of those two and compare it's sales to iPhone sales which will have the most sales?

All I'm trying to say is that by Android being on more than one phone they can attract many different parts of the market. The people looking for the cheaper phones, the people looking for a different carrier than what iPhone offers, etc. iPhone has only one market it attracts.

 

[OllyW]

Depends. Geeks I know at school in the Computer Engineering and CS department it goes Android, Blackberry then iPhone way down on the list.

Probably different types of geeks. The geeks I know are all middle aged and got into the iPhone well before Android made any serious impact on the market.

 

[NebulaClash]

Rim still has its bread and butter and that is enterprise and RIM is not going to hurt that just to court the finky consumer market.

RIM is losing the enterprise market. Haven't you seen the news articles talking about that trend? The big Wall Street banks are moving away from RIM and toward iPhones. It's not a trend that is good for RIM.

And RIM did court the consumer market, which is why you see so many teen girls with Blackberrys so that they can text for free. Didn't help RIM in the long run though.

 

[Themaeds]

No.. Brand awareness means they will also be aware of the price associated with it. If they are not aware of the price, and that happens to play a factor in their buying decision, then they will be attracted to the phones that offer similar features. It's the equivalent to Walmart or Publix selling their own brand of corn, soda, chips, etc.

Most of the best selling Android phones have the same exact price tag as the Iphone

 

[Oletros]

So if you take the most sold of those two and compare it's sales to iPhone sales which will have the most sales?

All I'm trying to say is that by Android being on more than one phone they can attract many different parts of the market. The people looking for the cheaper phones, the people looking for a different carrier than what iPhone offers, etc. iPhone has only one market it attracts.

Mmmm, iPhone is sold on ALL the major carriers, prices are moreless the same on all the high end phones (Apple, Samsung, HTC, Nokia, etc).

I think you're not aware that non USA phone market is very different.

 

[Dcuellar]

Most of the best selling Android phones have the same exact price tag as the Iphone

Then the next buying decision would be what carrier can I use for this phone. Still, if you take any of these best selling Android phones individually they will not have as many sales as the iPhone has.

 

[Dcuellar]

Mmmm, iPhone is sold on ALL the major carriers, prices are moreless the same on all the high end phones (Apple, Samsung, HTC, Nokia, etc).

I think you're not aware that non USA phone market is very different.

It's not the same case in the US. That's got to help Android. Android still has that advantage...unless you think the people in the US do not buy smartphones...

 

[Oletros]

It's not the same case in the US. That's got to help Android.

Help Android where?

 

[Dcuellar]

Help Android where?

In the US Market. They have better market exposure by being available on more networks.

Do the math.

5+ Android Phones X number of carriers
1 iPhone X number of carriers

 

[AaronEdwards]

Then the next buying decision would be what carrier can I use for this phone. Still, if you take any of these best selling Android phones individually they will not have as many sales as the iPhone has.

And the counter argument is that Apple are selling as many iPhone 4 as they are because that they only got one recent model. (BTW, is the AT&T iPhone 4 the same as the Verizon iPhone 4 and the White iPhone 4?)

Their views differ, it's as simple as that.
Apple believe that just having one recent model of the iPhone is the way to do it. HTC, Motorola, Samsung, etc believe that having more recent phones is the way to do it.