Submitted by Google is activating half a million Android devices a day, a big jump in just the last couple months, a sign of growing momentum for the platform. While SymbianOS appears to be hanging on in the mobile arena, trends indicate that the iOS share is slipping slightly, losing ground to Android. The pure marketshare numbers don’t tell the whole story, since the entire segment is growing rapidly, so even platforms that are in declining share might be adding new users. But if the upsurge in Android activations continues, Android may overtake iOS in a few months and move into second place behind SymbianOS. Blackberry is in a slow decline, while WP7 does not have enough market share to appear in the statistics.
Man, is Windows Phone 7 really doing that badly? If so, hard to feel sorry for MS, because of all their past sins. Karma can be a real bitch
Nah, it’s just MS’s inability to be a market leader in the mobile area. They really have this problem in most of the markets they try to expand into.
That they try to protect their desktop monopoly really hinders them here since a lot of new tech (especially mobile) naturally tends to eat into their very profitable desktop paradigm.
with every HTC Android phone sold. Don’t ever forget that.
Plus MS has an active policy of going after Android makers one by one and getting them to sign up to their ‘pay us a license for these patents you are infringing’.
Only (AFAIK) Barnes & Noble with their Nook (based on Android) has had the guts to stan up to them.
So when you go looking for that snazzy new Android phone remenber you might be paying Microsoft $5 for being allowed to actually buy it.
Samsung, LG, Motorola, ZTE etc aren’t paying either AFAIK.
It is just HTC and some smaller vendors.
I hope once Google defended Android against Oracle they will put their legal muscle against the mostly stupid MS patents.
Samsung, LG, Motorola, ZTE etc aren’t paying yet
There fixed it for you.
http://www.engadget.com/2011/04/04/google-bids-900-million-for-nort…
here is the kicker:
http://www.winrumors.com/microsoft-concerned-over-nortel-patent-sal…
This makes Microsoft sound like hypocrites:
http://androidandme.com/2011/06/news/microsoft-tries-to-block-googl…
Microsoft tries to block Google’s purchase of Nortel patents, says it’s unfair
Now when you read what Microsoft actually mean, it isn’t so damning, but still, for people who just read headlines, and then find out that Microsoft are trying to extract a payment from makers of Android devices when Microsoft did not write any of Android … a headline like that is a real PR black eye for Microsoft.
Microsoft looks guilty because they are guilty. I am hoping the lawsuit against Microsoft by B&N will lead to more anti trust investigations.
Well, Microsoft & pals got the patents, Google got nothing:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/01/us-nortel-idUSTRE7600PF20…
I dont trust your crystal ball.
That stats site is awesome. It’s quite interesting to see the worldwide trend then compare it to other countries.
It says in the UK the market is dominated by blackberry and IOS with android gaining fast. It feels like that here too.
Take a look at South Korea – you’ll be suprised!
http://gs.statcounter.com/#mobile_os-KR-monthly-201007-201105
Edited 2011-06-30 08:44 UTC
OTOH, I’m not very impressed with the purchase decisions of the people of my own country:
http://gs.statcounter.com/#mobile_os-oc-monthly-201007-201105
Sigh!
What about North Korea?
http://gs.statcounter.com/#mobile_os-KP-monthly-201007-201105
I guess The Great Leader had a bit of a falling out with Jobs at the March 2011 Evil Leaders Of The World meeting.
Haha, and Antarctica is a Maemo stronghold it seems
Dear Leader probably has the only mobile phone in Nth Korea.
and swapped to Symbian! He’s gone up in my books. Only a fraction, mind…
Change the time scale to eliminate the noise and see the long-term picture, too
It’s quite interesting…
World-wide : iOS slowly fades into irrelevance at the same rate that Android grows, Symbian is not as dead as lots of people think, and despite a good effort RIM are now sinking too…
http://gs.statcounter.com/#mobile_os-ww-weekly-200851-201126
Africa : Direct illustration of how important building OSs which run on cheap phones is important. Gimmicky apps won’t save a product if it’s simply overpriced compared to how much people are willing to pay.
http://gs.statcounter.com/#mobile_os-af-weekly-200851-201126
Asia : Symbian’s losing, Android’s growing, the rest is essentially stagnating
http://gs.statcounter.com/#mobile_os-as-weekly-200851-201126
Europe : iOS is particularly strong and Symbian is particularly weak there. Here, iOS is relatively stable, as Android grows at the expense of Symbian
http://gs.statcounter.com/#mobile_os-eu-weekly-200851-201126
N. America : Rise and fall of giants… iOS crashing in flames, Android rising pretty quickly, RIM struggling but not dead yet.
http://gs.statcounter.com/#mobile_os-na-weekly-200851-201126
Oceania : Say hello to iPhone ! I don’t know what has happened there (maybe someone can explain), but iOS sure seems to be extremely popular. There seems to be some flawed measurements around, though, judging by how wildly the numbers vary. Perhaps, there simply enough data to do stats on, like in Antarctica.
http://gs.statcounter.com/#mobile_os-oc-weekly-200851-201126
S. America : iOS is dead after a momentary burst of popularity, Android’s struggling but slowly growing, and Symbian’s losing ground. Only spectacular variation is bada here, which has apparently implanted itself quite well.
http://gs.statcounter.com/#mobile_os-sa-weekly-200851-201126
Edited 2011-06-30 09:28 UTC
re Oceania.
Very few Android phones were available in Australia until about six months ago.
Oceania is a mere 30 million people btw.
This is true. Lately however the competition has heated up.
http://www.goodgearguide.com.au/article/350310/samsung_galaxy_vs_ap…
The article linked above compares the iPhone4 and the Samsung Galaxy S in the Australian market, and concludes that it is an even contest.
The article does not cosider price, though, and the Galaxy S is less expensive in the Australian market than an iPhone4.
If enough people become aware of this kind of bang-for-buck value comparison, then the market share of iPhone in Australia should begin to decline.
Edited 2011-07-01 02:53 UTC
The Australian phone shops are now full of Android phones and tablets. My local Telstra shop (the biggest phone retailer in Australia) no longer stocks Apple products (special order only).
Interestingly, MS doesn’t even have enough market share to show up on the US specific version:
http://gs.statcounter.com/#mobile_os-US-weekly-200851-201126
HP’s WebOS, however, does. Just goes to show how little there is of WP7.
Depends if they’re in “unknown” or “others”… Statcounter apparently haven’t bothered to integrate a tool to detect WP7 phones.
WP7 would probably show up as WinCE instead of “other”.
However, it’s hard to find anyone with high WinCE numbers.
I agree with your assessment completely. Hence the aggressive litigation tactics of both companies. Both Microsoft and Apple is scared of the Android juggernaut.
The signs were there a year ago. I remember lots of members here and on slashdot predicted Apple’s resurgence once their handsets become available on other networks – a very US centric way of thinking. And even there, it didn’t work out as expected. In fact, looking at the North American figures after the Verizon launch, you’ll see…nothing. No change in the trend. Not even a tiny blip.
Then the theory (still in circulation) is that both will grow in parallel, eating up RIM, Symbian, and what’s left of WinMO market share. Wrong again. It is clear now that in many countries, Android is eating Apple’s lunch. Another prediction is that Android growth will be based on dirt cheap handsets manufactured in mom and pop shops in China. Wrong again. In fact, in most developing countries iOS is still going strong (it’s still a status symbol there) – but we have a very different picture in the two leading economies in Asia. Basically, the Apple market collapsed in Korea. From a 70% market share they dropped down to 3-4% while Android grew to 95%. Japan is following, albeit more slowly. And then there is Taiwan, where again, Android is wiping the floor with Apple on the high end – the only segment of the market Apple cares about.
This is a significant change, because services on handsets become more and more “social” – they depend on numbers. Think Facetime – facetime needs the numbers it still enjoys in the west to be attractive. Think about the ad market – again, it depends on numbers. It’s a bit like social networking – the more people are on either platform, the better that platform becomes. Latitude works best if most of your close friends and family are on Android. Etc.
So it’s not Android on the low-end with cheap Chinese handsets and Apple on the lucrative high-end as both companies and dozens of analysts predicted. I haven’t seen any low-end Android phones around here (I live in Vietnam). It’s all symbian here, Apple is still trendy, but now ordinary people (ie not geeks) already heard the name Android. I don’t mean to predict Apple’s demise just yet, but they feel threatened. And they should be.
Edited 2011-06-30 15:20 UTC
It should be noted that those numbers are for OS share, and include the iPod Touch, iPads, Android tablets, etc (although, realistically, the iPod is the only one that really makes a difference). Looking purely at smartphones, Android is dominating almost every Western market and had a narrow lead over Symbian worldwide at the end of 2010.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/apr/18/smartphone-market-…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smartphone#Operating_system_market_sha…
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-06-29/samsung-files-itc-patent-c…
Samsung Electronics Co. escalated its legal dispute with Apple Inc. (AAPL) over smartphone patents, filing a trade complaint that seeks to block U.S. imports of the iPhone, iPod and iPad.
The data from gs statcounter is flawed:
http://gs.statcounter.com/about
“Stats are based on aggregate data collected by StatCounter on a sample exceeding 15 billion pageviews per month”.
Well there are quite a lot of people not browsing the web with their mobile phone(s). Most people I know do not browse the web or at very rare occassions.
The stats there suggest that where I live more than 70% used iOS in April 2009. Only that most people did not have an iPhone here at that time…
Edited 2011-06-30 18:09 UTC
I know of 3 people (my dad, two friends) that have jumped ship from Android to other platforms and I’m loving my WP7 Arrive :p I really hope WP7 doesn’t die.