The NPD claims that Android is outselling the iPhone and commands seven percent more of the US smartphone market than Apple, but now Cupertino, in a rare response, is saying “Not so fast.”
“This is a very limited report on 150,000 U.S. consumers responding to an online survey and does not account for the more than 85 million iPhone and iPod touch customers worldwide,” said Apple spokesperson Natalie Harrison.
Apple’s right to be defensive here: the recent NPD survey is being reported widely under alarmist headlines as an international trend, not a temporary American statistic as people wait for the next iPhone. Also, the real important statistic is how much of the mobile operating system market share Apple commands, and between the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad, Apple is still way ahead of Google.
Apple’s not losing the war against Android, and saying otherwise is disingenuous. Google’s strategy of putting Android on any mobile touchscreen device out there may eventually give it a commanding stake in the mobile operating system market, but they aren’t quite there yet.
John Brownlee is a writer for Fast Company, and a contributing writer here at CoM. He has also written for Wired, Playboy, Boing Boing, Popular Mechanics, VentureBeat, and Gizmodo. He lives in Boston with his wife and two parakeets. You can follow him here on Twitter.
