Android overtaking the iPhone in the smartphone market may have been inevitable, but few expected it to happen this fast.
Android sailed past Apple on US smartphones in the first quarter, according to the NPD research firm, with 28 per cent of unit sales, compared to 36 per cent for BlackBerry maker RIM and 21 per cent for those using the Apple operating system.
There are caveats. NPD based its figures on 150,000 completed online consumer research surveys rather than actual sales figures.
Further, a comScore survey in April showed the Google-led operating system more than doubling its smartphone subscriber market share in February, but to only 9 per cent from 4 per cent three months earlier. Apple had stayed constant at around 25 per cent.
Again, comScore’s figures are not based on actual sales, but on monitored usage of smartphones.
To add to the confusion, AdMob, the mobile advertising network, reported 50 per cent share for Apple in February and 24 per cent for Android. But its figures are based on requests made to its network to serve ads, reflecting the iPhone’s dominance in applications.
The Gartner research firm predicted last September that Android would overtake the Apple OS on smartphones worldwide by 2012, when they would have 18 per cent and 14 per cent share respectively, but that forecast now seems too conservative.
Andy Rubin, Google’s vice president of mobile engineering, commented last summer that the iPhone platform could not scale compared to Android, as Android would be available on many more devices from different manufacturers.
That was certainly true in the first quarter, with a variety of Android devices to choose from and a range of carriers, compared to AT&T’s exclusivity with the iPhone.
Verizon had a buy-one-get-one-free promotion for Android phones and it has been a major driver of the platform’s recent success, with its heavy marketing of the Droid phone.
“As in the past, carrier distribution and promotion have played a crucial role in determining smartphone market share,” said Ross Rubin, NPD analyst, in a statement.
“In order to compete with the iPhone, Verizon Wireless has expanded its buy-one-get-one offer beyond RIM devices to now include all of their smartphones.”
Apple is expected to unveil its next-generation iPhone in June, but it will find itself facing more than a dozen Android alternatives in the US, compared to the solitary HTC offering from T-Mobile when the iPhone 3GS launched a year earlier.
