7 ms·

Android takes huge lead in US Smartphone market

60 points by cshenoy 15y ago

ryandvm 15y ago
So this is going to play out just like Windows vs Mac.
- jamwt 15y ago
  Yep--low margin but ubiquitous commodity provider vs. high margin but low market share premium offering.
  - deleted 15y ago
    [deleted]
  - kenjackson 15y ago
    One thing I don't get though is that Android phones aren't very low margin. Their retail price is just as high as an iPhone (or at least close). Even feature phones aren't cheap. So do non-iPhone phones not get subsidized at full retail pricing (or generally much more substantially than the iPhone)?
    - jinushaun 15y ago
      With the exception of my gadget geek friends ponying big money for the latest 4G-whatever, everyone I know who has an Android phone got it on a two-for-one special or nearly free discount. These huge Android growth numbers aren't being driven by the $300 mega phones.
      - blinkingled 15y ago
        Cost of the handset is fraction of the overall 2 yr contract price with data plans that are must for these devices. I know people are eager to label Android as "cheap" and "commodity" but the reality is that there are hugely popular Android handsets in both premium and low cost segments and it isn't clear at all that all of the sales are from low end handsets. Similarly Apple sells $49 3GS - so does Apple now become a commodity/cheap brand?
      - enjo 15y ago
        My anecdotal experience would suggest otherwise...
    - nextparadigms 15y ago
      Nobody ever posts facts to back that up. They just assume it would be true. But HTC and Samsung are making a lot of profit on their Android phones, much more than they ever did with other mobile OS.
    - JohnsonB 15y ago
      The issue is that Android can be used on any hardware product whatsoever, so inevitably there will be both premium and more commodity type products that cover all market segments. Virgin Mobile already has non contract Android smart phones that retail (no rebate) for $150, far cheaper than an iPhone.
    - webwright 15y ago
      "One thing I don't get though is that Android phones aren't very low margin." http://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/store/controller?item=phoneFirst&action=viewPhoneOverviewByDevice&deviceCategoryId=1 http://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/store/controller?item=pho... $80 android phone right there. I assume that's lower margin than, say, the $200-300 iphones that Verizon sells with a 2 year contract. Apple is culturally stuck to high margins. Google cares only about making sure Apple doesn't win and the other handset makers are used to pretty lean margins... Androids will keep getting cheaper-- there'll be free/near-free ones out there soon.
      - kenjackson 15y ago
        For some reason that link doesn't work for me. But my point isn't the price the customer pays. But rather the price the carrier pays to HTC/Samsung. That's the money that the actual OEM makes. Those prices, if they're equal to the non-contract price, aren't that far off of the iPhone. Even feature phones are routinely $150 or so.
    - mercurio 15y ago
      iPhones get a much bigger subsidy from the carriers. This can be deduced from the ASP that Apple, HTC, RIM etc report. iPhone ASP has always been $600+, while HTC, RIM have ASPs around $300-400 (Samsung smartphone ASP is even lower). This can also be seen by looking at contract prices outside the US. For example, in the UK all phones can be had free on contract, but the monthly amount you pay for an iPhone is much larger than for a top of the line Android (see the O2 or Vodafone UK sites). The reason this is not reflected in the contract-less prices is because US carriers have a very strong incentive to inflate them to force you to choose contracts.
      - kenjackson 15y ago
        Perfect response. Thanks. That explains a lot of it.
      - nl 15y ago
        This isn't the case. The high-end Android phones start out roughly the same price as the iPhone, but drop quicker (because new high end models replace them quicker). Here are the Australian unlocked prices (Android reseller chosen because it was the top result in Google): iPhone4, prices $719-$999: http://store.apple.com/au/browse/home/shop_iphone/family/iphone http://store.apple.com/au/browse/home/shop_iphone/family/iph... Samsung Galaxy S2, price $749: http://www.mobicity.com.au/samsung-galaxy-s2.html http://www.mobicity.com.au/samsung-galaxy-s2.html Samsung Galaxy S (ie, old model similar age to iPhone4, which started out priced similar to iPhone 4), price $549: http://www.mobicity.com.au/samsung-i9000-galaxy-s-8gb-nextg.html http://www.mobicity.com.au/samsung-i9000-galaxy-s-8gb-nextg....
        mercurio 15y ago
        Actually, in your link above, iPhone 4 prices start from $859. $719 is the price of the 3GS. I don't know how it is in Australia, but the contract price discrepancy between Android phones and iPhones is well known in England. For example, O2 sells the Galaxy S2 for free with a 24 month £42 plan, while the 16GB iPhone 4 is free on a 24 month £67 plan. http://shop.o2.co.uk/mobile_phone/pay_monthly/init/Samsung/Galaxy_S_II http://shop.o2.co.uk/mobile_phone/pay_monthly/init/Samsung/G... http://shop.o2.co.uk/mobile_phone/pay_monthly/init/Apple/iPhone_4_16GB_Black http://shop.o2.co.uk/mobile_phone/pay_monthly/init/Apple/iPh...
  - zmmmmm 15y ago
    I'm not sure that's right. I think it's better to characterize it as high margin low market share premium offering vs everything (high, low, middle). Android's strength is exactly that it doesn't target anything and caters to every single demographic.
- bonch 15y ago
  Not necessarily. iOS already surpasses Android in mobile OS market share, and Android isn't making any inroads into tablets and other mobile computing devices, which will probably be the bigger market than smartphones.
  - nextparadigms 15y ago
    It won't be a bigger market than smartphones, not even close. There are 5 billion phone subscriptions in the world right now. They will all be replaced by smartphones. EDIT: Also iOS growth is slower than Android growth, still, so it's just a matter of time before even iOS numbers get beaten, with or without Android tablets.
    - ChuckMcM 15y ago
      "There are 5 billion phone subscriptions in the world right now. They will all be replaced by smartphones." Not saying I disagree but I am saying you have to be careful with blanket statements like this. I recall Olympus stating that phones were simply incapable of competing with digital cameras, regardless of market. However the market has shown that phones eat into the low end market and the SLRs are pushing down from the top putting a lot of pressure on the mid-range market. I could imagine that the 'phone' function as an adjunct to all tablets. All you need is a headset and voice dialing and your tablet can go VOIP/Cellular as the channel availability demands. Services like Gvoice making the endpoints number vanish by overlaying it with a 'logical' phone number. Its not a huge step to cannibalization of the smartphone market by the tablet market.
      - Zaak 15y ago
        A tablet doesn't fit in your pocket. I carry my phone everywhere I go. Though I would love to have a tablet, I can't imagine doing the same with one.
        cryptoz 15y ago
        It's a very person to person thing. I carry both a smartphone and a tablet with me everywhere and I find myself never using the phone unless someone actually....phones.
- mercurio 15y ago
  Except that Windows vs Mac was something like 95% to 5% in favor of Windows, while the smartphone market is likely to end up more like 60% to 30% in favor of Android. The situation is different qualitatively. The data consistently shows that iPhone share is growing, just not as fast as Android.
  - cppsnob 15y ago
    When a market is growing, it allows everyone to grow... for a while. Check out the Commodore 64 in this graph: http://jeremyreimer.com/totalshare5.gif http://jeremyreimer.com/totalshare5.gif
    - deleted 15y ago
      [deleted]
- tobylane 15y ago
  It's easy to make a program for windows run ok on XP and brilliantly on 7 (I assume, never tried, that you do something like target net 3 or something else M$ have backported). It sounds like you can't be so successful with the old android phones, even if you tried.
gte910h 15y ago
This is phone only share. Accounting for non-phone use, it's not even close, android is still behind. iPodTouches are very popular replacements for gaming platforms for children/young adults (crowding out the nintendo DS), and there is the iPad, while blackberry/android tablets aren't doing well (Galaxy tab had a 16% return rate).
- smackfu 15y ago
  I bet Apple prefers to sell $649 phones over $229 iPods.
- dhjson 15y ago
  Accounting for non-phone use, it's not even close, android is still behind. That sounds reasonable, but do you have any sources?
  - bonch 15y ago
    Granted, it's a figure from Apple, but at WWDC, they touted iOS as having 44% mobile OS market compared to Android's 28%.
  - gte910h 15y ago
    Samsung lawsuit forced disclosure of iPodTouch sales http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/11/04/19/apples_samsung_lawsuit_notes_over_60_million_ipod_touch_sold.html http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/11/04/19/apples_samsung... Even first day iPad sales blow through http://allthingsd.com/20100405/apple-300000-ipads-sold-on-first-day/ http://allthingsd.com/20100405/apple-300000-ipads-sold-on-fi... http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2011/03/02Apple-Launches-iPad-2.html http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2011/03/02Apple-Launches-iPa... etc.
  - mmorris 15y ago
    The only market share numbers I've seen recently that included non-phone devices were straight from Apple (so feel free to take it with a grain of salt if you'd like). They have iOS at 44%, with Android at 28%. http://www.readwriteweb.com/mobile/2011/06/ios-number-one-mobile-operating-system-says-apple.php http://www.readwriteweb.com/mobile/2011/06/ios-number-one-mo...
bonch 15y ago
Isn't it odd how the media always compares an entire operating system platform to one phone? When iPads and iPod touches are counted, iOS far surpasses Android. It's weird for them not to count mobile operating systems as a whole and instead focus on a single type of device they run on.
- luigi 15y ago
  Actually, no. As stated in the headline, this is a report on smartphone market share.
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
- nextparadigms 15y ago
  It's about the smartphone platforms.
  - gte910h 15y ago
    That's the thing: It's only about phones. If you look at smartphone platforms you have to include the non-phone items.
    - bad_user 15y ago
      If you look at smartphone platforms you have to include the non-phone items. Dude, read that sentence you just wrote again.
      - Stormbringer 15y ago
        His sentence makes perfect sense. You just need to level up and put some points into reading comprehension. Go talk to the dudes with the giant yellow exclamation marks over their heads. That will help. Additionally - meditate on the following koan: if a vendor builds a platform, and nobody builds a device for it, will it still be hyped by the tech-press?
      - 15y ago
esun 15y ago
I lost my iPhone 3GS last Thursday, used a Blackberry Curve as a loaner until today, when my Samsung Galaxy S arrived. I was really surprised how far behind RIM is. I knew it was bad; didn't know it was that bad.
- canistr 15y ago
  It's because you were using a Curve...
  - nestlequ1k 15y ago
    Nah, I used a bold for a week (while I was developing an app for it), and it was unbelievably bad. I couldn't find a single thing to like about it, however the most unbelievable thing is you have to reboot the device every time you install an app.
tylerneylon 15y ago
By my calculation, there have been about 130 million Android devices sold to date, and over 200 million iOS devices (including iPads and iPod touches). I haven't found an easy way to get these numbers. Here are my sources: * Apple announced the 200m number at WWDC this year http://www.tuaw.com/2011/06/06/apple-touts-impressive-ios-numbers-at-wwdc/ http://www.tuaw.com/2011/06/06/apple-touts-impressive-ios-nu... * There have been about 325m smartphones (including iPhones) sold worldwide so far http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=1421013 http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=1421013 * Android has about 40% market share worldwide http://gadgetbox.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/06/09/6820706-android-market-share-to-surpass-40-percent-this-year http://gadgetbox.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/06/09/6820706-andr... It looks like iOS still has at least 50% more users than Android. But none of that matters compared to the one number I find hardest to determine: How much money is sent to third-party developers on each platform? Meaning, how much do customers spend on apps, less percentages sent to the app store owners? The consistent feedback I've gotten from all Android and iOS developers is that iOS customers are willing to pay more. (Apple announced they've given $2.5 billion to developers at WWDC. I can't find the corresponding Android number.)
- Daniel14 15y ago
  I imagine the number for Android lying significantly lower, because a) it's a lot harder to pay in the Android market and thus b) more apps are ad-supported. But I don't think you can ignore the market share trends in favor of how much money devs get on each platform today. Google is already working to get carrier billing for apps to more countries, so buying apps on android will get easier. Given the huge android userbase, it might soon be very smart to put in the extra effort of programming for Android (especially as you'd be one of the first to do so).
- smackfu 15y ago
  SO that's about $20 per iPhone that people spend on apps.
- GoldenMonkey 15y ago
  A year ago, android app developers have been paid out $21M. Maybe you can extrapolate from that? http://larvalabs.com/blog/android/android-market-payouts-total-2-of-app-stores-1b/ http://larvalabs.com/blog/android/android-market-payouts-tot...
guelo 15y ago
I've been keeping track of Comscore's numbers for a while and I've been looking for the Verizon bump that iPhones were supposed to receive. Looking at the derivative of the trends there does appear to be a small change but the effect is small and Android's growth is still about 3x the iPhone's. Historical market share: http://i.imgur.com/Aj7og.png http://i.imgur.com/Aj7og.png Change per month: http://i.imgur.com/2qIqH.png http://i.imgur.com/2qIqH.png One thing to consider is that these numbers are market share, they don't show how the overall pie is growing. (By the way, Comscore wants you to pay for historical data so they wouldn't like this being posted publicly, but I've been collecting this data from their press releases.)
- boredguy8 15y ago
  First, thanks for the historical data. That's nice to see. But it doesn't seem to me that we'd expect to see an immediate bump in iPhone's numbers from Verizon for at least three reasons unrelated to the platform's (potential) desirability: 1) The iPhone has a lot more competition among Verizon customers. For a while, if you wanted a good smartphone with AT&T, you were getting an iPhone. We wouldn't expect to see "auto-flocking" to the iPhone on Verizon like there was on AT&T for that reason. 2) Contract rollover inhibits fast reaction to new developments. I know a substantial number of people who went Android with the Motorola Droid release in November, 2009. For a 2 year contract, that means November, 2011 is when those customers will be reevaluating their smartphone brand. 3) For some people who wanted an iPhone, they probably bought an iPhone regardless of the network. iPhone on Verizon was (or will be) a chance for some people to change carriers and keep the phone they love. I think those three factors inhibit a massive switch to iPhone simply because of its availability on a new carrier. Other factors may play a role, too. For instance, AT&T put a lot of their own advertising weight behind the iPhone. Verizon hasn't platformed the iPhone in the same way.
protomyth 15y ago
I think the more interesting number will hit when the next generation iPhone shows up and, if history is a guide, Verizon gets an "entry level" iPhone. If Apple is able to produce a phone that Verizon can do the same deal AT&T is doing (free + 2 year contract), then we will get a real feel for what the trend will be. Nokia might also finally get a boost in the US market thanks to Microsoft's help.
- zmmmmm 15y ago
  Look I know there is this perennial argument that somehow it just can't be true that people actually want Android phones and there must be some external reason why not everybody is buying an iPhone. At some point you've just got to give it up : people buy Androids because they want them. They want them more than iPhones.
  - gte910h 15y ago
    Yeah, I just want the numbers of "I wanted that phone" or "That phone was cheaper".
  - protomyth 15y ago
    No, I know people who wanted the Android phones, and I expect a market for Android phones. I know quite a few people who still like Blackberry and have taken the "free" phone when AT&T was offering some BB models that way. I want to know the % of the audience that is in the "I don't care" category and would take an iPhone if it were the free phone. I expect that some people might have and older iPod and think of this as a cheap replacement. (no clue on the down voting - seems like you cannot even imply free is a factor)
econgeeker 15y ago
As a developer, what's relevant to me is the addressable platform. Here the comparison is between a bunch of android phones with a mind boggling matrix of hardware and OS versions... to just one of the iOS devices. Having ported an app between the iPhone/iPod and the iPad, and having done the transition to "retina" resolution, the fragmentation in the iOS universe is about as much as I'm willing to take. Is there a single hardware & OS combination for android that is comparable to the size of the iPhone & iPod touch, iOS 4.x installed base? I really don't know, and have no idea where I'd go to find out. The thought of trying to support an android port of my apps, with the seemingly lower return on investment that the android application stores seems to give doesn't seem profitable.
- koko775 15y ago
  Ha. You don't know how good you have it. On Android: * Certain devices decode h.264 wrong and crash, others don't, and it's hard to reproduce and virtually impossible to test * No, there is no Android device dominating the others. Not even close. Program to API 7 or API 8 if you must, but the whole thing's a headache. * No expectations for resolution * This freaking bug (ARGH!!!!!!): http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=1353 http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=1353 * Everything is sized relatively, but the only way to size to a % of the screen (that I've found) is to pad a view with empty views with different weights, and set the middle view to 0dp (density-independent pixels, which, because of some manufacturers' lies and trickery, aren't always density-independent) tall, and have it resize later. But wait! Setting it to 0dp messes up other aspects of resizing! * The order of operations that Android goes through to resolve layouts, if it's even logical, is incredibly opaque, and at the very least, not at all intuitive. For example, denoting a view "A" to be above another view, let's call it "B", is not the same as denoting view "B" to be below view "A". Now try that with four views, arranged in a T formation. Hellish! And good luck trying to resize an image to clamp its left, top, and right edges to the screen, and crop it at the bottom - it won't work unless you clamp only a corner (i.e. top and left) then have it resize to fill the third clamped dimension, that is unless you're using other special tactics to mess around with other parts of your layout, in which case you'll waste a LOT of time finding the right answer, or one good enough to use. * The concept of resource overlays in Android is a huge, huge, huge pain in the ass. Possibly necessary given the complete fragmentation of the devices. * Devices will actually lie to you about their screen dpi/resolution because they think it'll be better * Some devices might have bad defaults, or not allow you to select a button without tapping it (i.e. with a directional pad) while others will. * Weak-linking and adding in checks for future functionality is not possible, to my knowledge, on Android. Adding in support for Honeycomb features entails actually not supporting them directly, but proxying them through a compatibility library. * The error-checking for XML layouts and themes is weak. * XML layouts and creating views in the equivalent of a view controller is entirely different and the mapping is not 1:1. Combining the approaches piecemeal complicates the whole process enormously. * Asynchronous data can only really be loaded one way without causing lower-end devices to crash on large datasets, and that is with the whole cursor/content provider ecosystem, which is a poor excuse of an abstraction given Java's power. * Parsing stuff tends to be dog-slow unless you spend an inordinate amount of time paying attention to it. * Certain upcoming platforms running Android - and developed by Google itself - don't even support the NDK, which means you can't even dip into C/C++ for performance anymore for said platform. God, I miss developing on iOS. It's too bad our app got rejected for using In-App Subscriptions, then rejected for not using In-App Subscriptions.
codeslush 15y ago
I was an original droid owner. I didn't want to switch to AT&T, as I had dropped them years before for a variety of reasons. Everyone I knew got iPhones, and I stuck with Verizon and was happy with my droid. Two months (or so) before the iPhone was released on Verizon, my droid essentially died (left side of touch screen unusable which rendered the phone useless). I got a Droid2. At the same time, I got my non-techie fiance a DroidX. Right after acquiring those two phones, Verizon announced iPhone. So...I returned them at the 30 day mark. Went to some old phones we had for a month or so and then got the Verizon version of iPhone a few days before everyone else. I DO NOT like the iPhone. My fiance also DOES NOT like the iPhone. I will be giving mine to our teenager in a month when I have an upgrade available and she will be giving hers to another kid a few months later with the next upgrade. I will immediately go back to an android phone, and most likely a Droid. Why? 1. Unexpectedly - the droid battery life sucks. That was the major reason I wanted an iPhone. But, I'm willing to deal with it. In fact, when I actually USE my iPhone, its battery life isn't substantially better (but still better). But it's not enough for ME. 2. I am just old fashioned I guess - I like the physical keyboard. In its absence, I like swipe. For me, it's just faster to get my emails/sms messages sent. Forget the keyboard - it's a preference thing. I can get a device on android WITH a keyboard or WITHOUT a keyboard. I like the options! 3. Google Maps/Navigation is SPECTACULAR on Android. It's not even comparable on iPhone. I'm sure I could purchase an iPhone app to make my experience better...but I refuse! The android app is free, it's awesome and with the various layers it's just something that I can't live without. I'm very directionally challenged and that app is a lifesaver that I don't want to live without. 4. Little indicator light telling me I have something new. Stupid, right? That little light saves me from having to unlock the phone and see if I have something that's new or not. The notification system is just better. 5. Email - I can't (or I don't know how) to reply to an email on the iPhone and add an attachment. 6. I used my droid WAY more for voice search and voice navigation. I NEVER used voice in other areas of the device, such as txt messaging - but I LOVED it for certain things and I just don't do it on the iPhone. Why? Don't know! I bet it's there - somehow. For me, it's just not part of the experience. 7. File/Photo transfer - it was so easy with my droid. Plug it in to my PC - copy! DONE. I could even copy from my PC back to the phone and it figured it all out. With iPhone, it seems I have to do everything through iTunes. iTunes is slow as hell on my PC. I hardly EVER sync the phone via my PC for this reason. 8. I don't recall (and maybe I'm wrong???) ever having to delete voicemail on my droid to free up space. I have more reasons I'm sure - these are off the top of my head. In the end, it doesn't really matter. If people are still replying to this thread, I'm sure some will give me an equal number of reasons why the iPhone is better - or even challenge some of the reasons why I loved my droid. At the end of the day, I'm going back to the android platform. I LIKED IT BETTER! I don't REALLY regret switching, because it allowed me to form my OWN opinion of the two platforms and come to my own decision. This is relevant to this conversation because I would PAY the same, or more, for an android phone over an iPhone. That's MY preference, as a techie, and that's my fiances preference - and she is definitely NOT a techie. I have very close friends who just don't get where I'm coming from - that I must be crazy...to them - enjoy your iDevice. I'll soon be back to enjoying my android device!

60 points by cshenoy 15y ago

ryandvm 15y ago

So this is going to play out just like Windows vs Mac.

jamwt 15y ago
Yep--low margin but ubiquitous commodity provider vs. high margin but low market share premium offering.
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
- kenjackson 15y ago
  One thing I don't get though is that Android phones aren't very low margin. Their retail price is just as high as an iPhone (or at least close). Even feature phones aren't cheap. So do non-iPhone phones not get subsidized at full retail pricing (or generally much more substantially than the iPhone)?
  - jinushaun 15y ago
    With the exception of my gadget geek friends ponying big money for the latest 4G-whatever, everyone I know who has an Android phone got it on a two-for-one special or nearly free discount. These huge Android growth numbers aren't being driven by the $300 mega phones.
    - blinkingled 15y ago
      Cost of the handset is fraction of the overall 2 yr contract price with data plans that are must for these devices. I know people are eager to label Android as "cheap" and "commodity" but the reality is that there are hugely popular Android handsets in both premium and low cost segments and it isn't clear at all that all of the sales are from low end handsets. Similarly Apple sells $49 3GS - so does Apple now become a commodity/cheap brand?
    - enjo 15y ago
      My anecdotal experience would suggest otherwise...
  - nextparadigms 15y ago
    Nobody ever posts facts to back that up. They just assume it would be true. But HTC and Samsung are making a lot of profit on their Android phones, much more than they ever did with other mobile OS.
  - JohnsonB 15y ago
    The issue is that Android can be used on any hardware product whatsoever, so inevitably there will be both premium and more commodity type products that cover all market segments. Virgin Mobile already has non contract Android smart phones that retail (no rebate) for $150, far cheaper than an iPhone.
  - webwright 15y ago
    "One thing I don't get though is that Android phones aren't very low margin." http://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/store/controller?item=phoneFirst&action=viewPhoneOverviewByDevice&deviceCategoryId=1 http://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/store/controller?item=pho... $80 android phone right there. I assume that's lower margin than, say, the $200-300 iphones that Verizon sells with a 2 year contract. Apple is culturally stuck to high margins. Google cares only about making sure Apple doesn't win and the other handset makers are used to pretty lean margins... Androids will keep getting cheaper-- there'll be free/near-free ones out there soon.
    - kenjackson 15y ago
      For some reason that link doesn't work for me. But my point isn't the price the customer pays. But rather the price the carrier pays to HTC/Samsung. That's the money that the actual OEM makes. Those prices, if they're equal to the non-contract price, aren't that far off of the iPhone. Even feature phones are routinely $150 or so.
  - mercurio 15y ago
    iPhones get a much bigger subsidy from the carriers. This can be deduced from the ASP that Apple, HTC, RIM etc report. iPhone ASP has always been $600+, while HTC, RIM have ASPs around $300-400 (Samsung smartphone ASP is even lower). This can also be seen by looking at contract prices outside the US. For example, in the UK all phones can be had free on contract, but the monthly amount you pay for an iPhone is much larger than for a top of the line Android (see the O2 or Vodafone UK sites). The reason this is not reflected in the contract-less prices is because US carriers have a very strong incentive to inflate them to force you to choose contracts.
    - kenjackson 15y ago
      Perfect response. Thanks. That explains a lot of it.
    - nl 15y ago
      This isn't the case. The high-end Android phones start out roughly the same price as the iPhone, but drop quicker (because new high end models replace them quicker). Here are the Australian unlocked prices (Android reseller chosen because it was the top result in Google): iPhone4, prices $719-$999: http://store.apple.com/au/browse/home/shop_iphone/family/iphone http://store.apple.com/au/browse/home/shop_iphone/family/iph... Samsung Galaxy S2, price $749: http://www.mobicity.com.au/samsung-galaxy-s2.html http://www.mobicity.com.au/samsung-galaxy-s2.html Samsung Galaxy S (ie, old model similar age to iPhone4, which started out priced similar to iPhone 4), price $549: http://www.mobicity.com.au/samsung-i9000-galaxy-s-8gb-nextg.html http://www.mobicity.com.au/samsung-i9000-galaxy-s-8gb-nextg....
      - mercurio 15y ago
        Actually, in your link above, iPhone 4 prices start from $859. $719 is the price of the 3GS. I don't know how it is in Australia, but the contract price discrepancy between Android phones and iPhones is well known in England. For example, O2 sells the Galaxy S2 for free with a 24 month £42 plan, while the 16GB iPhone 4 is free on a 24 month £67 plan. http://shop.o2.co.uk/mobile_phone/pay_monthly/init/Samsung/Galaxy_S_II http://shop.o2.co.uk/mobile_phone/pay_monthly/init/Samsung/G... http://shop.o2.co.uk/mobile_phone/pay_monthly/init/Apple/iPhone_4_16GB_Black http://shop.o2.co.uk/mobile_phone/pay_monthly/init/Apple/iPh...
- zmmmmm 15y ago
  I'm not sure that's right. I think it's better to characterize it as high margin low market share premium offering vs everything (high, low, middle). Android's strength is exactly that it doesn't target anything and caters to every single demographic.
bonch 15y ago
Not necessarily. iOS already surpasses Android in mobile OS market share, and Android isn't making any inroads into tablets and other mobile computing devices, which will probably be the bigger market than smartphones.
- nextparadigms 15y ago
  It won't be a bigger market than smartphones, not even close. There are 5 billion phone subscriptions in the world right now. They will all be replaced by smartphones. EDIT: Also iOS growth is slower than Android growth, still, so it's just a matter of time before even iOS numbers get beaten, with or without Android tablets.
  - ChuckMcM 15y ago
    "There are 5 billion phone subscriptions in the world right now. They will all be replaced by smartphones." Not saying I disagree but I am saying you have to be careful with blanket statements like this. I recall Olympus stating that phones were simply incapable of competing with digital cameras, regardless of market. However the market has shown that phones eat into the low end market and the SLRs are pushing down from the top putting a lot of pressure on the mid-range market. I could imagine that the 'phone' function as an adjunct to all tablets. All you need is a headset and voice dialing and your tablet can go VOIP/Cellular as the channel availability demands. Services like Gvoice making the endpoints number vanish by overlaying it with a 'logical' phone number. Its not a huge step to cannibalization of the smartphone market by the tablet market.
    - Zaak 15y ago
      A tablet doesn't fit in your pocket. I carry my phone everywhere I go. Though I would love to have a tablet, I can't imagine doing the same with one.
      - cryptoz 15y ago
        It's a very person to person thing. I carry both a smartphone and a tablet with me everywhere and I find myself never using the phone unless someone actually....phones.
mercurio 15y ago
Except that Windows vs Mac was something like 95% to 5% in favor of Windows, while the smartphone market is likely to end up more like 60% to 30% in favor of Android. The situation is different qualitatively. The data consistently shows that iPhone share is growing, just not as fast as Android.
- cppsnob 15y ago
  When a market is growing, it allows everyone to grow... for a while. Check out the Commodore 64 in this graph: http://jeremyreimer.com/totalshare5.gif http://jeremyreimer.com/totalshare5.gif
  - deleted 15y ago
    [deleted]
tobylane 15y ago
It's easy to make a program for windows run ok on XP and brilliantly on 7 (I assume, never tried, that you do something like target net 3 or something else M$ have backported). It sounds like you can't be so successful with the old android phones, even if you tried.

gte910h 15y ago

This is phone only share. Accounting for non-phone use, it's not even close, android is still behind. iPodTouches are very popular replacements for gaming platforms for children/young adults (crowding out the nintendo DS), and there is the iPad, while blackberry/android tablets aren't doing well (Galaxy tab had a 16% return rate).

smackfu 15y ago
I bet Apple prefers to sell $649 phones over $229 iPods.
dhjson 15y ago
Accounting for non-phone use, it's not even close, android is still behind. That sounds reasonable, but do you have any sources?
- bonch 15y ago
  Granted, it's a figure from Apple, but at WWDC, they touted iOS as having 44% mobile OS market compared to Android's 28%.
- gte910h 15y ago
  Samsung lawsuit forced disclosure of iPodTouch sales http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/11/04/19/apples_samsung_lawsuit_notes_over_60_million_ipod_touch_sold.html http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/11/04/19/apples_samsung... Even first day iPad sales blow through http://allthingsd.com/20100405/apple-300000-ipads-sold-on-first-day/ http://allthingsd.com/20100405/apple-300000-ipads-sold-on-fi... http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2011/03/02Apple-Launches-iPad-2.html http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2011/03/02Apple-Launches-iPa... etc.
- mmorris 15y ago
  The only market share numbers I've seen recently that included non-phone devices were straight from Apple (so feel free to take it with a grain of salt if you'd like). They have iOS at 44%, with Android at 28%. http://www.readwriteweb.com/mobile/2011/06/ios-number-one-mobile-operating-system-says-apple.php http://www.readwriteweb.com/mobile/2011/06/ios-number-one-mo...

bonch 15y ago

Isn't it odd how the media always compares an entire operating system platform to one phone? When iPads and iPod touches are counted, iOS far surpasses Android. It's weird for them not to count mobile operating systems as a whole and instead focus on a single type of device they run on.

luigi 15y ago
Actually, no. As stated in the headline, this is a report on smartphone market share.
deleted 15y ago
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nextparadigms 15y ago
It's about the smartphone platforms.
- gte910h 15y ago
  That's the thing: It's only about phones. If you look at smartphone platforms you have to include the non-phone items.
  - bad_user 15y ago
    If you look at smartphone platforms you have to include the non-phone items. Dude, read that sentence you just wrote again.
    - Stormbringer 15y ago
      His sentence makes perfect sense. You just need to level up and put some points into reading comprehension. Go talk to the dudes with the giant yellow exclamation marks over their heads. That will help. Additionally - meditate on the following koan: if a vendor builds a platform, and nobody builds a device for it, will it still be hyped by the tech-press?
    - 15y ago

esun 15y ago

I lost my iPhone 3GS last Thursday, used a Blackberry Curve as a loaner until today, when my Samsung Galaxy S arrived. I was really surprised how far behind RIM is. I knew it was bad; didn't know it was that bad.

canistr 15y ago
It's because you were using a Curve...
- nestlequ1k 15y ago
  Nah, I used a bold for a week (while I was developing an app for it), and it was unbelievably bad. I couldn't find a single thing to like about it, however the most unbelievable thing is you have to reboot the device every time you install an app.

tylerneylon 15y ago

By my calculation, there have been about 130 million Android devices sold to date, and over 200 million iOS devices (including iPads and iPod touches). I haven't found an easy way to get these numbers. Here are my sources: * Apple announced the 200m number at WWDC this year http://www.tuaw.com/2011/06/06/apple-touts-impressive-ios-numbers-at-wwdc/ http://www.tuaw.com/2011/06/06/apple-touts-impressive-ios-nu... * There have been about 325m smartphones (including iPhones) sold worldwide so far http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=1421013 http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=1421013 * Android has about 40% market share worldwide http://gadgetbox.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/06/09/6820706-android-market-share-to-surpass-40-percent-this-year http://gadgetbox.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/06/09/6820706-andr... It looks like iOS still has at least 50% more users than Android. But none of that matters compared to the one number I find hardest to determine: How much money is sent to third-party developers on each platform? Meaning, how much do customers spend on apps, less percentages sent to the app store owners? The consistent feedback I've gotten from all Android and iOS developers is that iOS customers are willing to pay more. (Apple announced they've given $2.5 billion to developers at WWDC. I can't find the corresponding Android number.)

Daniel14 15y ago
I imagine the number for Android lying significantly lower, because a) it's a lot harder to pay in the Android market and thus b) more apps are ad-supported. But I don't think you can ignore the market share trends in favor of how much money devs get on each platform today. Google is already working to get carrier billing for apps to more countries, so buying apps on android will get easier. Given the huge android userbase, it might soon be very smart to put in the extra effort of programming for Android (especially as you'd be one of the first to do so).
smackfu 15y ago
SO that's about $20 per iPhone that people spend on apps.
GoldenMonkey 15y ago
A year ago, android app developers have been paid out $21M. Maybe you can extrapolate from that? http://larvalabs.com/blog/android/android-market-payouts-total-2-of-app-stores-1b/ http://larvalabs.com/blog/android/android-market-payouts-tot...

guelo 15y ago

I've been keeping track of Comscore's numbers for a while and I've been looking for the Verizon bump that iPhones were supposed to receive. Looking at the derivative of the trends there does appear to be a small change but the effect is small and Android's growth is still about 3x the iPhone's. Historical market share: http://i.imgur.com/Aj7og.png http://i.imgur.com/Aj7og.png Change per month: http://i.imgur.com/2qIqH.png http://i.imgur.com/2qIqH.png One thing to consider is that these numbers are market share, they don't show how the overall pie is growing. (By the way, Comscore wants you to pay for historical data so they wouldn't like this being posted publicly, but I've been collecting this data from their press releases.)

boredguy8 15y ago
First, thanks for the historical data. That's nice to see. But it doesn't seem to me that we'd expect to see an immediate bump in iPhone's numbers from Verizon for at least three reasons unrelated to the platform's (potential) desirability: 1) The iPhone has a lot more competition among Verizon customers. For a while, if you wanted a good smartphone with AT&T, you were getting an iPhone. We wouldn't expect to see "auto-flocking" to the iPhone on Verizon like there was on AT&T for that reason. 2) Contract rollover inhibits fast reaction to new developments. I know a substantial number of people who went Android with the Motorola Droid release in November, 2009. For a 2 year contract, that means November, 2011 is when those customers will be reevaluating their smartphone brand. 3) For some people who wanted an iPhone, they probably bought an iPhone regardless of the network. iPhone on Verizon was (or will be) a chance for some people to change carriers and keep the phone they love. I think those three factors inhibit a massive switch to iPhone simply because of its availability on a new carrier. Other factors may play a role, too. For instance, AT&T put a lot of their own advertising weight behind the iPhone. Verizon hasn't platformed the iPhone in the same way.

protomyth 15y ago

I think the more interesting number will hit when the next generation iPhone shows up and, if history is a guide, Verizon gets an "entry level" iPhone. If Apple is able to produce a phone that Verizon can do the same deal AT&T is doing (free + 2 year contract), then we will get a real feel for what the trend will be. Nokia might also finally get a boost in the US market thanks to Microsoft's help.

zmmmmm 15y ago
Look I know there is this perennial argument that somehow it just can't be true that people actually want Android phones and there must be some external reason why not everybody is buying an iPhone. At some point you've just got to give it up : people buy Androids because they want them. They want them more than iPhones.
- gte910h 15y ago
  Yeah, I just want the numbers of "I wanted that phone" or "That phone was cheaper".
- protomyth 15y ago
  No, I know people who wanted the Android phones, and I expect a market for Android phones. I know quite a few people who still like Blackberry and have taken the "free" phone when AT&T was offering some BB models that way. I want to know the % of the audience that is in the "I don't care" category and would take an iPhone if it were the free phone. I expect that some people might have and older iPod and think of this as a cheap replacement. (no clue on the down voting - seems like you cannot even imply free is a factor)

econgeeker 15y ago

As a developer, what's relevant to me is the addressable platform. Here the comparison is between a bunch of android phones with a mind boggling matrix of hardware and OS versions... to just one of the iOS devices. Having ported an app between the iPhone/iPod and the iPad, and having done the transition to "retina" resolution, the fragmentation in the iOS universe is about as much as I'm willing to take. Is there a single hardware & OS combination for android that is comparable to the size of the iPhone & iPod touch, iOS 4.x installed base? I really don't know, and have no idea where I'd go to find out. The thought of trying to support an android port of my apps, with the seemingly lower return on investment that the android application stores seems to give doesn't seem profitable.

koko775 15y ago
Ha. You don't know how good you have it. On Android: * Certain devices decode h.264 wrong and crash, others don't, and it's hard to reproduce and virtually impossible to test * No, there is no Android device dominating the others. Not even close. Program to API 7 or API 8 if you must, but the whole thing's a headache. * No expectations for resolution * This freaking bug (ARGH!!!!!!): http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=1353 http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=1353 * Everything is sized relatively, but the only way to size to a % of the screen (that I've found) is to pad a view with empty views with different weights, and set the middle view to 0dp (density-independent pixels, which, because of some manufacturers' lies and trickery, aren't always density-independent) tall, and have it resize later. But wait! Setting it to 0dp messes up other aspects of resizing! * The order of operations that Android goes through to resolve layouts, if it's even logical, is incredibly opaque, and at the very least, not at all intuitive. For example, denoting a view "A" to be above another view, let's call it "B", is not the same as denoting view "B" to be below view "A". Now try that with four views, arranged in a T formation. Hellish! And good luck trying to resize an image to clamp its left, top, and right edges to the screen, and crop it at the bottom - it won't work unless you clamp only a corner (i.e. top and left) then have it resize to fill the third clamped dimension, that is unless you're using other special tactics to mess around with other parts of your layout, in which case you'll waste a LOT of time finding the right answer, or one good enough to use. * The concept of resource overlays in Android is a huge, huge, huge pain in the ass. Possibly necessary given the complete fragmentation of the devices. * Devices will actually lie to you about their screen dpi/resolution because they think it'll be better * Some devices might have bad defaults, or not allow you to select a button without tapping it (i.e. with a directional pad) while others will. * Weak-linking and adding in checks for future functionality is not possible, to my knowledge, on Android. Adding in support for Honeycomb features entails actually not supporting them directly, but proxying them through a compatibility library. * The error-checking for XML layouts and themes is weak. * XML layouts and creating views in the equivalent of a view controller is entirely different and the mapping is not 1:1. Combining the approaches piecemeal complicates the whole process enormously. * Asynchronous data can only really be loaded one way without causing lower-end devices to crash on large datasets, and that is with the whole cursor/content provider ecosystem, which is a poor excuse of an abstraction given Java's power. * Parsing stuff tends to be dog-slow unless you spend an inordinate amount of time paying attention to it. * Certain upcoming platforms running Android - and developed by Google itself - don't even support the NDK, which means you can't even dip into C/C++ for performance anymore for said platform. God, I miss developing on iOS. It's too bad our app got rejected for using In-App Subscriptions, then rejected for not using In-App Subscriptions.

codeslush 15y ago

I was an original droid owner. I didn't want to switch to AT&T, as I had dropped them years before for a variety of reasons. Everyone I knew got iPhones, and I stuck with Verizon and was happy with my droid. Two months (or so) before the iPhone was released on Verizon, my droid essentially died (left side of touch screen unusable which rendered the phone useless). I got a Droid2. At the same time, I got my non-techie fiance a DroidX. Right after acquiring those two phones, Verizon announced iPhone. So...I returned them at the 30 day mark. Went to some old phones we had for a month or so and then got the Verizon version of iPhone a few days before everyone else. I DO NOT like the iPhone. My fiance also DOES NOT like the iPhone. I will be giving mine to our teenager in a month when I have an upgrade available and she will be giving hers to another kid a few months later with the next upgrade. I will immediately go back to an android phone, and most likely a Droid. Why? 1. Unexpectedly - the droid battery life sucks. That was the major reason I wanted an iPhone. But, I'm willing to deal with it. In fact, when I actually USE my iPhone, its battery life isn't substantially better (but still better). But it's not enough for ME. 2. I am just old fashioned I guess - I like the physical keyboard. In its absence, I like swipe. For me, it's just faster to get my emails/sms messages sent. Forget the keyboard - it's a preference thing. I can get a device on android WITH a keyboard or WITHOUT a keyboard. I like the options! 3. Google Maps/Navigation is SPECTACULAR on Android. It's not even comparable on iPhone. I'm sure I could purchase an iPhone app to make my experience better...but I refuse! The android app is free, it's awesome and with the various layers it's just something that I can't live without. I'm very directionally challenged and that app is a lifesaver that I don't want to live without. 4. Little indicator light telling me I have something new. Stupid, right? That little light saves me from having to unlock the phone and see if I have something that's new or not. The notification system is just better. 5. Email - I can't (or I don't know how) to reply to an email on the iPhone and add an attachment. 6. I used my droid WAY more for voice search and voice navigation. I NEVER used voice in other areas of the device, such as txt messaging - but I LOVED it for certain things and I just don't do it on the iPhone. Why? Don't know! I bet it's there - somehow. For me, it's just not part of the experience. 7. File/Photo transfer - it was so easy with my droid. Plug it in to my PC - copy! DONE. I could even copy from my PC back to the phone and it figured it all out. With iPhone, it seems I have to do everything through iTunes. iTunes is slow as hell on my PC. I hardly EVER sync the phone via my PC for this reason. 8. I don't recall (and maybe I'm wrong???) ever having to delete voicemail on my droid to free up space. I have more reasons I'm sure - these are off the top of my head. In the end, it doesn't really matter. If people are still replying to this thread, I'm sure some will give me an equal number of reasons why the iPhone is better - or even challenge some of the reasons why I loved my droid. At the end of the day, I'm going back to the android platform. I LIKED IT BETTER! I don't REALLY regret switching, because it allowed me to form my OWN opinion of the two platforms and come to my own decision. This is relevant to this conversation because I would PAY the same, or more, for an android phone over an iPhone. That's MY preference, as a techie, and that's my fiances preference - and she is definitely NOT a techie. I have very close friends who just don't get where I'm coming from - that I must be crazy...to them - enjoy your iDevice. I'll soon be back to enjoying my android device!