A few weeks ago, we shared with you the fact that market research company ComScore did the math to reveal that as awesome as the iPhone is, the device's marketshare was dwarfed when compared against the figures currently being enjoyed by Android-powered handsets. The report was a perfect example of what most folks who chase Apple news around all day already knew: While Apple has been selling all the iPhones they can make, crippled by an exclusivity deal with AT&T and the fact that unlike Google's promiscuous flavor of the month Android OS, iOS is locked to Apple-produced hardware, making for a sales situation that put Google at the top of the heap. As much as we'd like to say that it wasn't the case, it appears that the number-crunchers are back to rub the noses of the Apple-faithful in the mess once again. This time around, The Nielsen Company is swearing up and down that according to their research, Android is the most popular operating system among those who purchased smartphones in the United States in the past six months.
Hey, we're not happy about it either.
Nielsen obtained their numbers over an eight-month period--between January 2010 and this past August--that included the consumer feeding-frenzy surrounding the launch of the iPhone 4 handset. Unfortunately, even with Cupertino's latest smartphone hotness playing the field, the popularity of Apple's iOS still came in second when stacked up against Android. Bear in mind, these numbers are in relation to the popularity of an operating system among smartphone owners, not the popularity of a given handset make or model. Who wins that contest, you ask? Unsurprising to technology watchers, the Canadian-made Research In Motion's Blackberry is still king. Having been on the market longer than either the iPhone or any Android handset, and firmly entrenched in the business world, the ubiquitous smartphone is still on top with a 31% share of the market. Nielsen noted that while Blackberry held the top position, the sun was setting on RIM's dominance, with Apple breathing down the company's neck with a 28% marketshare.
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AIA17
October 05, 2010 at 4:20pm
Come on, simple rule of marketing; take a product; Android, get everyone and their dog to build a phone off of the OS, and sure there will be a lot of phones. And chances are, with such a wide range of phone running Android, there is bound to be someone that will fall in love. need to sort of look at like this. One company (Apple) or (RIM) make phones that are true successes. Companies building off of Android keep designing phone after phone, trying to get it right, trying to hit the mark; If they had only gotten it right the first time.
To be fair, iOS (Apple) is a single company, making one phone (RIM is very similar). Take only one of the other Android phone makers and compare them to Apple or RIM, no one will do the comparison, due to the obvious.
Such ridiculous comparisons. Pure Brilliance.
rpeeples56
October 05, 2010 at 10:52am
Maybe Android is on more phones and carriers, but the comparison is flawed: people use phones, not operating systems. Take any single Android phone, and while maybe one or more of it's features may compare favorably with the iPhone 4, not ONE Android phone can whip the iPhone based on totality of features, functionality, or apps/content availability - this has been shown by countless one-on-one matchups. The Android market is fractured into dozens of models running, what is it now, 3 incompatible versions of Android? For all it's carriers and models, Android has but a tiny fraction of the market's profits, while iOS still has more than anybody else at 50%. As soon as iPhone is available on other carriers, Android's marketshare advantage will quickly narrow.
