IDC, Gartner: the Android Invasion Is Worldwide

The fact that Android is doing well shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone; lots of figures already prove that. New figures from research firms Gartner and IDC from the second quarter of 2010 show that not only is Android doing well in the United States – it’s doing well in Foreign as well. Worldwide, Android has soared past iOS, and is closing in on Research In Motion’s BlackBerry – just one percentage point left. Symbian is still the undisputed king of smartphone land, with more installations sold than RIM and Android combined.

I’m focussing on the Gartner figures, since they provide a little more detail in their press release (the full set of figures are behind a paywall, as usual).

While we already knew that Android was doing very well in the US, it looks like it’s also doing well worldwide. Year over year, the growth figures are absolutely ridiculous: in the first quarter of 2009, Android had a worldwide market share of 1.8% (755900 units) – in the second quarter of 2010 this rose to 17.2% (10.6 million (!) units). Quarter over quarter, Android went from 9.6% in Q1 2010 to 17.2% in Q2 2010. Yeah, it nearly doubled in three months.

“A non-exclusive strategy that produces products selling across many communication service providers (CSPs), and the backing of so many device manufacturers, which are bringing more attractive devices to market at several different price points, were among the factors that yielded its growth this quarter,” Gartner said.

Apple’s iOS – on the iPhone at least – also saw it’s market share grow, with 13% (5.3 million units) in Q1 2010 and 14.2% (8.7 million units) in Q2 2010. However, the overall smartphone market grew much faster, so the increase in unit sales for the iPhone simply couldn’t keep up.

Strangely enough, Symbian isn’t a total loser here. While it does hemorrage market share, unit sales are still way up, from 20.8 million to 25.3 million. Still, this doesn’t match the overall growth of the market, and as such, Symbian loses ground to iOS and Android. RIM’s sales were up as well, but again, not enough to prevent a slight decrease in market share.

Stepping off our mobile platforms to look at device manufacturers, the picture is pretty much the same: Samsung and HTC are both seeing crazy increases in sales because of Android, while both Apple and RIM are doing pretty decent too. We’re also seeing something else we know from the computer market: average selling prices are dropping, but they’re dropping faster for those that don’t ship iOS devices. Which is everyone but Apple, obviously.

Only a portion of iPhone 4’s impact is included in these figures, so the next quarterly figures ought to be real interesting. Apple may be able to fight back slightly, but they won’t be able to stop the Android invasion by any means. Google’s mobile operating system is poised to become the market leader sooner rather than later – Symbian will be though to overtake, but it won’t take longer than 18-24 months.

In the smartphone market, at least. These figures don’t include the iPod touch and iPad, which are, of course, iOS devices as well.

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