Who controls the U.S. smartphone market? It’s a tie between Apple and Android with RIM and others trailing far behind according to new research.
Apple is the leading smartphone maker in the U.S., according to Nielsen research conducted in June. BlackBerry-maker RIM and Android handset manufacturer HTC are tied for 20 percent of domestic smartphones as Motorola ranks third with just 11 percent. Hewlett-Packard and beleaguered Nokia are barely a blip on the consumer radar at only two percent.
Unlike Apple, Android’s OS lead depends on multiple handset makers, currently led by Taiwan-based HTC at 14 percent of the market, according to the new numbers.
Meanwhile, Android’s share of the U.S. smartphone OS market stands at 39 percent, up three points from the previous Nielsen survey done between February and April. Apple’s iOS is in second-place with 28 percent of the market, up two percent.
The latest smartphone figures show a settling-in with Apple and Android dominating while previous leaders watch their U.S. marketshare fall and remain low. The strength of Android suggests HTC could push RIM to third place, putting the once mighty BlackBerry manufacturer in an even more precarious market position.
Here’s a question for you: do any of our readers use an Android smartphone over an iPhone? If so, why? Let us know in the comments.
Ed Sutherland is a veteran technology journalist who first heard of Apple when they grew on trees, Yahoo was run out of a Stanford dorm and Google was an unknown upstart. Since then, Sutherland has covered the whole technology landscape, concentrating on tracking the trends and figuring out the finances of large (and small) technology companies.
19 responses to “The iPhone Is The Biggest Smartphone In America, But Android Takes The OS Lead”
I’m a huge Apple fan (just short of fanboy), but as I wait for iPhone 5 and iPod Touch 5G I also keep an eye on the ‘droids – there’s no doubt that they are very cool devices. One thing that very much concerns me is the lack of any talk of 4G from Apple. This seems odd given the huge speed increase that 4G provides. Because of the apparent lack of realization of 4G with Apple cellular devices my strategy right now is an iPod 5G and Verizon’s 4G MiFi device. On the other hand – could just go with the upcoming Android hardware which will be 4G capable – hmmm…
Apple launch product that available international… 4G not international yet that’s why Apple won’t launch 4G for current market… until 4G have internationally Apple 4G product will launch…
HTC Taiwan headquarter is only 0.5KM from my place. During lunch time, I could see an large variety of HTC android phones in restaurants nearby. There was once, I brought my baby to Starbucks and he was playing my iPhone 4 (from HK, not released in Taiwan at that time). Until he dropped it to the floor, I didn’t notice that many people were paying attention. AAAAH was all around.
My conclusion, for my neighbors, they simply used it for work. For some people, it’s “made in Taiwan” and less expensive in Taiwan.
The other reason for it, you probably don’t care, is Chinese IME (input method) made by HTC is way better than Apple’s. HTC android could type in Chinese way faster than iPhone.
I think the comparison on os leadership in this article was pretty much based on quantity only. No bias here, but Android can run on many devices in comparison with iOS devices, like iphone mentioned in this article, that are leading the market. With this being said, Apple’s iOS with 28% market share, which is 11% lower than all Android devices adding up, is quite impressive! That implies people like the quality and experience as a result of OS and device engineered to work together, not one optimized without considering the other. This has been Apple’s strategy, which is approved to be working based on Apple’s mobile devise leadership,
So, who is the real leader when looking more closely into the figures in the article?
I use an Android phone (Motorola Defy). I prefer it because:
a) I could buy it unclocked and use it with my own carrier without any problems.
b) it cost me only £269 (about $440) as a completely unlocked phone, so a real bargain.
c) whilst it’s physically slightly smaller than the iPhone, it actually has a slightly larger screen
d) it’s rugged enough to not require a case or sleeve for when I carry it in my jeans pocket (no scratches from coins or keys on the Gorrila glass screen)
e) As it’s physically smaller, it’s easier to slip into a pocket without it digging into you when you sit down.
f) I like being able to have the screen look how i want. I can have my home screen show more than just icons. Instead I can have a live feed of Twitter & Facebook updates from friends in one widget, my next appointment details in another, a weather forecast in a third, all of which I can see just by unlocking the phone, no need to go into different Apps
g) It’s allowed me to keep the calls/sms/data package I tailored with my carrier that only costs me £8 a month, which suits my needs.
h) I can choose to upgrade the memory if I want/need by only having to buy a new micro-USB cards for a few pounds.
i) A little point that won’t apply to many folks, I work for the company that makes one of the chips inside it, so it’s nice to be able to say to folks, I had a small part in it :-)
So, I’m not a “fanboy”. I love my iMac, my MacBook, my iPod Touch, and my iPod shuffle. But I choose tech items based on what works best for me, and in this case, that means the Moto Defy.
I own a Sony Ericsson Xperia x10a for only one reason: It came free with my mobile plan. I would much rather have a iPhone but the fact is I just cannot afford one. Maybe when the iPhone 5 comes out. But if I did have to give some credit to Android, I love the ability to connect my phone to my computer and see the SD card so that I can put whatever I want on it. This allows me to put games on my phone that I downloaded off of the Internet for free. Widget are also a really cool feature that Apple should look into. But overall I am 100% iPhone over Android.
As well as an iPad I’ve got a WP7 and Android device, both HTC.
The WP7 gets the most daily use as it has an excellent UI, but the iPad is often used for PDF reading and also for a few iOS applications I like to use.
The Android phone is for hacking, although I am tempted to switch to one for general use due to the good integration with Google’s tools, which WP7 does not have.
Android top mobile OS,Apple top maker in US http://bit.ly/qhpsdu
I am so eager to know about Ipod Touch 5g release date after knowing this
The usual idea is that you would use NFC to set up the link between the two devices and then do an automatic hand over to a different protocol for doing the actual transfer of data – eg Bluetooth,iphone 5