Android blitzes iOS in Q2, Samsung rules...

IDC reports that Android has significantly increased its lead in smartphone OS share with a massive 68.1% of the Q2 ’12 market compared to its arch rival, Apple’s iOS, which lost share, posting a 16.9% figure for the second calendar quarter of 2012. In fact, Android was the only smartphone OS besides WinPhone to show any growth over Q1 and Android smartphones are currently outselling iPhones four to one.

Android further extends its lead in smartphone OS market share

Another quarter, another increase in market share for Android, with a commanding 59%, representing 89.9 million handsets shipped. That’s a year on year change from  36.1% or 36.7 million units, which works out to growth of 145% if you’re keeping score.

Based on the number of days in the quarter, Androids were selling at 988,000 phones each and every day, just a sniff under the million a day milestone. Given the growth trend, it seems inevitable that as of right now, two thirds of the way into the second quarter, that the million threshold has been passed and there will be partying going on at Google HQ.

Samsung takes top mobile phone sales in Q1

Samsung has surged into number one spot globally in handsets sold and perhaps more importantly, in smartphones, the latter being the future of mobile.

Despite Q4 2011 smartphone champ Apple’s iPhone range collaring the Cupertino Colossus a healthy 35.1 million units shipped in Q1 2012, it wasn’t enough to beat the efforts of its nemesis Samsung. The Korean company sold 42.2 million smartphones in Q1 2012, an impressive 267% increase over the same quarter last year. This compares more than favourably with Apple’s 88.7% increase year to year.

Android experiencing massive growth in China

Graphic: Life Of Android

Android’s performance in China, the world's largest cellphone market, has been outstanding, the platform clearly wiping the floor with its competition.

By the close of 2011, Android had more than doubled its already dominating smartphone market share to 68.4% from the 33.6% it held at the end of Q1. The biggest loser, not unexpectedly, has been Nokia which saw its Symbian platform drop from ~40% to 18.7%

Apple’s iOS grew slightly during the year, from 4.1% in Q1 to 5.7% at the end of Q4, which must be a concern to the Cupertino tech giant. In light of the fast-maturing Western marketplaces, Apple’s continuing growth strategy requires capitalizing on the rapidly-expanding markets like China and India, something that it has so far failed to achieve to any significant extent.

US smartphone figures out for the Feb quarter. Who won?

comScore has released its latest smartphone numbers for the three months ending February, and as expected, Android continues its industry leading growth.

Despite the US being the home ground and the most successful single market for its main competitor, the Android platform took more than half of the US market, an increase of 17 points compared to the same period in 2010/2011.

Android's growth stalling?

Android's Andy Rubin has blogged his update to the platform's status, and it's more of the same really. Maybe...

It's difficult to imagine the sheer scale of Android's growth even when the numbers are presented - there are now more than 850,000 new activations each day, up from 700,000 announced on December 20 last year. Yet that doesn't include those thousands of Android powered devices that don't use Google Services and make no mistake, that's a lot of uncounted phones and tablets. Like the Kindle Fire, for example, the best selling Android tablet with nearly 10% of the tablet market. Or basically any Android device sold in China, a bigger mobile market than the US now. Which could mean in reality that the daily total is a massive 15% larger than reported, or North of 970,000.

Android eats into iPad sales in 2011

According to iSuppli, Apple's market-defining media tablet suffered a market share setback in 2011, dipping from the spectacular 87% share it held in 2010, down to 62% in 2011, a 29% drop year on year. This will probably come as a surprise to nobody since the iPad was the tablet market for all intents in 2010, Apple having reinvented the category much as it did with the iPhone.

Gartner weighs in with smartphone market results...

Last analyst cab off the rank, Gartner has added their two cents on the state of the mobile market, broadly agreeing with those figures previously reported.

As AndroidNZ predicted, Android saw more than double the market share of its smartphone platform rival iOS despite the hype that surrounded the iPhone's "super quarter" in which pent-up demand, a new product launch and the holiday season all combined to artificially inflate its sales for the period.

According to Gartner's figures, 35.45 million iPhones were sold during Q4 for 24% share, (helping sneak Apple's total handset share past LG's by half a percent for the whole of 2011 and into third place in the process). However, Android powered smartphones accounted for 75.9 million phones in the fourth quarter, taking 51% of the market, despite the "perfect storm" of advantageous conditions that helped Apple's 24% Q4 performance.

Comparing fourth quarter performance year on year, iOS grew 150% while Android handily topped that with 170% growth.

Android extends market share lead in 2011

Despite the overwhelming media hype regarding sales of Apple's iPhone in the final quarter of 2011, Android-powered devices accounted for 51.6% of global smartphone shipments for the quarter, versus iPhone's 23.4% as reported Friday by researcher Canalys. Android smartphone shipments grew 148.7% compared to the same quarter in 2010, to 81.9 million units, and a total of 237.8 million for the full year, up a huge 244.1% over 2010.

In contrast, second placed Apple sold 37.0 million iPhones, in a December quarter that for the first time combined an iPhone model launch with the Christmas holiday period, a "perfect storm" of favorable conditions for the iDevice maker. For the whole of 2011, Apple shipped 93.1 million iPhones, demonstrating a growth of 96% over 2010 - a strong result but still far shy of Android's performance.

Apple's smartphone numbers in perspective

The web has just suffered a collective head rush on the news that Apple has sold 37.04 million iPhones, a doubling of sales from the previous quarter. Spectacular Android destroying stuff!

Or is it really? Let's have a wee look, shall we?

Using Apple's own earning statements for the last 15 months, and beginning with Q4 2010 as a base from which to work, we can put that performance into some perspective. If you get bored with figures and such, you might want to skip to the next bit, but if you're brave enough to follow the bouncing ball, the journey is enlightening.

Sep 2010 Q4 – 14.10 M

Dec 2010 Q1 – 16.24 M – 115.5% (increased)

Mar 2011 Q2 – 18.60 M – 114.5% (increased)

Jun 2011 Q3 – 20.34 M – 109.0% (increased)

Sep 2011 Q4 – 17.07 M – 84.0% (decreased)

Dec 2011 Q1 – 37.04 M – 217% (increased)

Android grabs a bigger chunk of the tablet market

iPad share shrinks as Android looks on

Strategy Analytics is reporting that tablet market leader, once seemingly omnipotent Apple, has again lost share to Android in the latest quarter, consecutive quarters indicating that it's now a trend. After a slow start in the tablet space, Android has picked up some real momentum, fueled by a variety of consumer targeted devices from many manufacturers offering the buyer something previously lacking, choice.

While Android's tablet share sat at 29% at the close of 2010, that number has increased to 39% at the end of 2011. In contrast, Apple's share has fallen from 68% to 58% over the same period and you don't need to be a mathematician to work out where the iPad's market went.

Android retains US market share crown despite strong iPhone showing

Despite the pent up demand in the US for Apple's iPhone, resulting from its later than usual release, the iDevice fell short of the numbers achieved by its competitor OS, Android. That poorer than anticipated result is somewhat of a surprise cosidering the US is Apple's spiritual home and the brand does disproportionately well there, whereas in the UK, the iPhone range actually outsold all Android phones combined at launch.

Nielsen reports that Apple's smartphone offering only missed equaling the Android share by 2.4%, the closest quarterly result since Android overtook the iOS smartphone in sales last year. The closeness of the result has had various bloggers and tech pundits posit that Apple is catching up to its rival, although that's not possible until the iPhone again sells more than the Android powered smartphones and so far that hasn't happened.

Spectacular Android Mobile Device Growth Continues…

For the whole of 2011, Android nearly doubled its global share of the smartphone market versus 2010, according to Canaccord Genuity, with the Little Green Robot taking 43% compared to 22.6% previously. That compares extremely well with Apple's iOS, Android's main competitor. The Cupertino-based iPhone maker's unit sales performance showed only a weak two percentage point increase over the previous 12 month period.

Fire Kindles blazing holiday sales

While Amazon famously refuses to provide specific sales numbers for its Kindle range of readers and tablets, it has confirmed that it sold "well over" a million units a week for the whole four week period leading up to Christmas.

Research analyst company Morgan Keegan has predicted around 5 million Kindle Fires were sold which, if correct, would easily make it the largest-selling Android tablet so far. The secret to its success is its price, selling in the 'States for $200 which handily undercuts all other tablets including Apple's iPad and even RIM's heavily discounted PlayBook.

Android's share of the tablet market, initially lackluster, has begun to accelerate with a number of brands and models gaining traction, but ominously for competitors, the Kindle Fire has demonstrated that a good price point will be attractive to the buying public. So much so, in fact, that the market dominant iPad has likely suffered a significant drop in its own market share. Morgan Keegan are expecting the iPad's sales to have been affected by as many as 2 million units by the Fire alone, with their estimate for the December quarter down from 16 million units to 13 million.

The iPad sold 11.2 million units in the previous quarter, which suggests a growth in the December quarter of nearly 2 million, but this rate of growth is significantly slower than previously and notably weak in what has always been Apple's best quarter for all its products. On the other hand, the Android tablet share has been demonstrating an increased growth rate even prior to the Fire's launch. So the figures for the tablet wars are likely to show the iPad as having suffered a dramatic loss of market share when all the Q4 research is reported.

Source: Morgan Keegan

Tablet wars heat up: Fire to grab big market share...

Canaccord Genuity analyst Walkley predicts Amazon's tablet share will grab 15.3% from a standing start in Q4 of 2011, an absolutely stunning result for the company in getting its trojan horse loss-leader in the hands of their clients.


Amazon expects to make up any short term loss on the hardware from the increased sales it'll achieve through use of the device. And given the popularity of the Fire already, it looks to be a dead cert that they're right.


In what is increasingly seen as a blow to Apple's quest for world domination in the tablet sector, the iPad maker's share of the pie continues to shrink, even more rapidly now that the Fire has inflamed the public's imagination (forgive the bad pun), every Android tablet sale being potentially a lost iPad one.

Kindle Fire takes tablet second place in just two weeks!

Practically two years following the launch of the original iPad, a competitor has finally emerged to take on Apple's “post-PC” gizmo. Sales so far suggest the Kindle Fire offers an appealing blend of pricing, marketing and ecosystem, certainly enough to capture tablet buyers not already wedded to Apple's own closed model. 

Amazon is predicted to ship 3.9 million Kindle Fire tablets during Q4 2011, as reported by iSuppli, giving the company 13.8% of global tablet shipments. Samsung will occupy the #3 spot with an estimated 4.8%. Market leader Apple will drop its share from 69.7% to 65.6%, its fourth consecutive drop, according to the tracking company. 

At $US199, Kindle Fire just ignited the Android tablet market. Amazon plans to use its new device to help sell its other inventory, the company’s core business, so it has no hesitation in selling the Fire as a loss-leader, something most other competitors can't mimic.

With every Kindle Fire, US owners receive a free one-month membership to Amazon Prime, free access to movies and TV, and access to the Kindle ebook lending library. It's not clear what additional benefits Fire owners outside the US will be eligible for, but each market will undoubtedly get its own market-specific perks.

Source: iSuppli

Android leads smartphone share in the US. Again...

In case you can't be bothered decoding the chart below, here's a summary of the third quarter US smartphone market action.

Hot on the heels of the report on the state of the UK smartphone platform market, comes Nielsen's take on Q3 in the good ol' You Ess of Eh. Unsurprisingly, Android continues to gain share with its 42.8% while its nearest competitor Apple scores 28.3%. For comparison, the figures for the previous quarter show Android with 39% OS share while iOS had 28.0%. In Q3, RIM managed a creditable 17.8%, WinMobile 7.3% (all versions combined), WebOS 2.2% and Symbian a quite appalling 1.7%.

The US market contains some interesting quirks with Nokia's presence being absent for all practical purposes and Apple enjoying the home team iFan advantage. Neither of those factors appears to have had much, if any, influence on Android's Q3 US market performance though.

Surprisingly perhaps, HTC is still the biggest Android handset seller in the US and second handset seller overall with 20.3%, followed by the ever-improving Samsung with a total of 11%. Local lads Motorola sold 10.6% and the rest ran last-ish. Apple still leads the handset manufacturer stakes in its home country with 28.3%, while RIM's Blackberry commands a decent 17.8% for third place still, despite the doom prognoses it gets in the blogosphere on an almost daily basis. Go figure...

While the US market continues trends seen over recent quarters, this report obviously cannot reflect the launch of the iPhone 4S so there will be a shift in relative share reported in Q4. Rest assured, we'll be covering that news when it appears in January.

 Source: Nielsen

iOS demand pips UK Android sales in October

As anybody paying attention could (and did) predict, Apple's latest iGadget has helped iOS to take top honours in the smartphone segment in the UK. Reported by obscure market tracker, the intriguingly-named Kantar Worldpanel ComTech, iOS totted up 42.8% market share for the week ending october 30, while the UK's Android sales for that week managed a relatively lacklustre 35%.

So, as expected, the much-speculated mega-hit generated by the iP4S's pent-up demand arrived in the UK at least, and for a week the Cupertino phone maker got to bask in some good market share news for a change. The fly in the ointment is that across the quarter ending on that same October 30, Android devices still sold to the smartphone-buying Brits faster than than iOS iDevices did - Android scoring 46% to Apple's 27.8%.

But the iPhone maker will be sighing with relief at the cessation, however temporary, of its continually poor showing versus Google's efforts.

Note also that this result is for the UK only, and covered the week of the iPhone 4S's launch. It also occurred in a climate where Apple has finally made its phones available to any carrier that can afford the meaty subsidy the company demands for the priviledge of becoming an iPhone reseller, and the new gizmo is a world phone which means it's able to run on any network on the good Earth.

Still, expect the news to be trumpeted from the rooftops in Cupertino for the next 30 days.

Graphic courtesy of Kantar Worldpanel ComTech - note the comparitive growth figures...

Android's Growth Continues Unabated

Gartner's figures are in and the news is all good for Android - not so good for most everybody else. The little green robot's share of the smartphone market has rocketed to 52.2% and I use the word "rocketed" without hint of exaggeration. Just one paltry year ago, its market share stood at 25.3%. That, for the mathematically-challenged among us, is a more than doubling of market share, something that even the most critical of pundits can but regard with something approaching awe.

HTC Takes Smartphone Top Spot in the US

Exceeding even Samsung's performance in the US market, HTC has achieved number one status for the third quarter of 2011. The company shipped 5.7 million devices under its own brand, nearly a quarter of the market, in addition to an estimated 70,000 units for T-Mobile's house brand.

As reported earlier, Samsung hasn't been standing still either, with 27.8 million smartphones taking it to more than 23% of the market worldwide. That is the second highest quarterly result ever, topped only by Nokia’s Q4 2010 performance. Around 500,000 of Samsung's smartphone units were sub-branded T.Mobile or Google.

Samsung took second in the US with 4.9 million units, significantly behind its Android competitor HTC, but ahead of Apple.

Apple's decision to delay the introduction of the iPhone 4S continues to haunt the Cupertino tech giant, its iPhone line managing third US spot with 4.6 million units.

However, the pent-up demand for the newest iPhone means that Apple will be guaranteed a spectacular fourth quarter, perhaps enough to temporarily restore its share to number one for Q4. Its growth, however, has not matched that of its competitors and any unit market leadership will doubtless be short-lived.

Meanwhile, the Chinese smartphone market is poised to become the world's largest any day now, having missed by just 200,000 or so in the last quarter.

Source: Canalys