Google's Android platform shipped on more than 40 percent of smartphones, trumping Apple iOS and Research In Motion BlackBerry smartphones, said Canalys and the NPD Group.
Google's Android operating system led Apple iOS, Research In Motion BlackBerry
and others in growth for the third quarter, shipping on more than 40 percent of
new smartphones, according to research from Canalys and the NPD Group.
Android shipped on 44 percent of all smartphones in the United
States for the third quarter, up 11
percentage points from the second quarter, the NPD Group said. Popular Android handsets in the United
States included Motorola's Droid X and Droid
2, HTC's Droid Incredible and Evo 4G, and
Samsung's Galaxy S line.
Apple iOS, whose meteoric rise up the smartphone rankings has been tempered
by Android's own popularity, gained 1percentage point to hit 23 percent of all
installations. Its iPhone 4, launched in late June, was the top-selling
smartphone.
Despite having the second highest-selling smartphone in the BlackBerry Curve
8500, RIM saw its share further eroded by Android and iOS: RIM dropped to 22
percent from 28 percent in the second quarter.
"The HTC Evo 4G, Motorola Droid X
and other new high-end Android devices have been gaining momentum at carriers
that traditionally have been strong RIM distributors, and the recent
introduction of the BlackBerry Torch has done little to stem the tide,"
said Ross Rubin, executive director of industry analysis for NPD.
Android's rise from 2009 to 2010 has been impressive. When it compared its
Q3 2009 Android numbers to the current stats, NPD discovered RIM OS share
declined 53 percent, with Apple iOS dropping 21 percent.
Canalys' research supports this, noting that Android handsets worldwide were
up 1,309 percent year-on-year from 1.4 million in Q3 2009 to more than 20.0
million units in Q3 2010. That's good for 25 percent market share.
For the most part, Canalys reported
similar smartphone shipment stats to NPD, noting that Android's share was 43.6
percent to NPD's 44 percent estimate.
Canalys Senior Analyst Pete Cunningham noted that, while Android is featured
on leading high-end smartphones, it also appears on lower-end devices such as
the LG GT540 Optimus and Huawei's Vodafone 845, "ensuring that Android
devices are available and affordable to consumers on almost any budget."
Canalys said Apple grabbed 17 percent of the worldwide smartphone shipment
share, passing RIM at 15 percent for the quarter. The story is worse for RIM in
the United States,
with Apple taking 26 percent share to RIM's 24 percent plot.
Interestingly, Rubin noted that while the iPhone has held its own at
AT&T, Apple faces challenges in expanding its domestic market share versus
Android on the lone carrier.
That comment comes as Verizon is reportedly set to launch the iPhone, possibly as soon as January 2011. That
should prove a major disruption in the smartphone market, with the iPhone
winning back gobs of lost share from Android and crunching RIM even more.
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