Posted on 10/06/2010 9:44:25 AM PDT by SmokingJoe
The last time Nielsen declared Android to be the most popular smartphone operating system in the United States, Google's victory was incomplete. Apple hadn't launched the iPhone 4 yet, and sales were bound to spike in the months that followed.
But here we are, two months later, and Nielsen has once again found that more people bought Android phones in the last six months than any other platform.
Indeed, Apple's iPhone sales spiked in July, which was the first full month of iPhone 4 sales. Nielsen found that 26 percent of people who bought smartphones between February and July got an iPhone, compared to 21 percent between January and June. In August's survey, recent iPhone purchases accounted for 25 percent of the market.
Android, meanwhile, grabs more of the market every month. By August, Android phones accounted for 32 percent of all smartphones sold in the last six months.
Big deal, you might say. Android phones are sold by all four major carriers, and the iPhone is only on AT&T. Fair point, I suppose, but during the last two survey periods, the iPhone and Research in Motion's Blackberry phones are neck-and-neck, following a sharp decline for RIM. A multi-carrier approach does not guarantee dominance.
Still, there's no denying that the iPhone would see huge gains in market share if it ever stopped being exclusive to AT&T. In all likelihood, that won't happen until at least next year. Meanwhile, Microsoft hopes to disrupt the status quo with Windows Phone 7, and I wouldn't totally count out WebOS, now that HP is running the show.
(Excerpt) Read more at pcworld.com ...
AT&T must have gotten a really good contract with Apple. I’m surpsied they haven’t gone to t-mobile yet at least it would require almost no additional engineering. Anyone have any thoughts?
I’m one waiting for Apple to get the Iphone on Verizon. My company provides me with a Blackberry on AT&T - which is my prime reason for 1) wanting an Iphone, and 2) not wanting AT&T.
As for GOOGLE - I don’t give a smelly Obama.
As a monolithic company, for Apple - It’s a real resource sync to support all the different carriers. With Android it works the other way around. All the different carriers support Android.
Nothing great. And Google is BAD.
I miss my Windows smart phone, but alas, there is no replacement with my carrier and no access to a iPhone (MT).
AT&T did purchase my carrier - Alltel - but our cell towers need massive upgrades.
I love my android. I use it for everything, e-mail, text, g-mail, appointments, and the camera if great!
Now the cell service isn’t that great but I text more than call anyway.
I thought Verizon bought Alltel?
Why is marketshare such a big deal?
Seriously. If I'm a phone vendor who wishes to address some (partial) segment of the available phone market, and I can sell all the phones I can produce into that segment, why does it matter if that means I have 100%, 50%, 10% of the overall market?
Apple sells high-end and mid-high gear. It does not address the low-end and low-mid markets. So it will never own the marketshare that the other vendors crave.
So if Apple is selling every iPhone it produces, who gives a godd@mn what that means in terms of marketshare?
Some days it seems to me that the "Mine is bigger than yours is" mentality so common among sales people has corrupted our thinking to the point where we think, not only that "more is better", but "enough is insufficient".
If Apple were losing money and their stock price was tanking and nobody was buying their products, that's a different story. But in fact they are extremely successful.
It seems to me we've lost our vision of what "business success" means.
Same here. January 2011?
Because smart phones are miniature computers, so market share helps determine how many software vendors will want to make software for the platform, which in turn helps determine how much software is available, which helps drive desirability, which then perpetuates market share.
It’s just like the rest of the software business. If you’re going to make a widget, but you only have the resources to develop and test for one platform you need to pick wisely. And unless that widget targets a group that’s skewed from the norm your best bet is probably to aim for the biggest market share.
Okay, understood. If people desert your widget because of low marketshare, and you go out of business, you have a point.
But if a company is wildly successful, addressing a small segment of the marketplace, why is that considered bad?
Sour grapes syndrome eh?
Exactly what segment you talking about here, dude?
Smartphones are smartphones. Both Androids and iPhones are selling to the same smartphone segment of the cell phone market, only Androids are busy clobbering the iPhones in sales even as we speak. Hey, I don't recall any of the Applebots coming up with this "market share doesn't matter" crap back a few months ago when the iPhone was clobbering Androids. In fact, Steve Jobs used to precede every speech of his with the fast rising market share figures for the iPhones.
And what is this talk about “and I can sell all the phones I can produce”?
The factories in China can only produce a limited number of iPhones? Since when?
Aren't the same Chinese contract manufacturers making both the iPhones and the Android? And can't they make as many iPhones as Apple could possible ever want even if Apple were selling a 100 million iPhones a month(which they are not of course)?
“It seems to me we've lost our vision of what “business success” means”
Naaaaah.
Its always been about bigger market share and ultimately bigger revenues and profits. That is why Toyota overtook Ford and GM in worldwide market share and then proceeded to overtake GM and Ford in revenues and sales as well..and that is why Microsoft has been making more profits than Apple does for decades..because Windows PC’s sell vastly more units than Macs
It isn’t, but it does narrow your survival path. What happens if that market goes away, either from you or in general. Think of it like being king of the two way text pagers 10 or 12 years ago, it was a narrow market but highly profitable, then texting became a checkbox feature on cellphones (even non-smart phones) and text pagers are now on the ash heap of history, had Research in Motion (who were the kings of two way text) not had the BlackBerry in the cell market when paging died they’d have died too.
And right now in the smart phone market there’s the chance of over fractionalizing. Most tech markets have room for 2 or 3 competitors, right now there’s 5 majors plus some clear also rans. 2 or 3 of those majors are toast, depending on how diverse their company is that company could be toast. One of the fun parts about markets in general and the tech market in particular is wildly successful today doesn’t necessarily mean anything tomorrow. 18 months ago nobody though anything would knock iPhone off the top of the mountain, now the numbers make it pretty clear iPhone is no longer on the top of the mountain.
Even Captain Picard uses an Android phone:
http://verydemotivational.com/2010/10/04/demotivational-posters-smartphones/
> One of the fun parts about markets in general and the tech market in particular is wildly successful today doesn’t necessarily mean anything tomorrow. 18 months ago nobody though anything would knock iPhone off the top of the mountain, now the numbers make it pretty clear iPhone is no longer on the top of the mountain.
I was frankly astonished that an Apple product would ever be "on the top of the mountain" in terms of marketshare. Unless they are defining a whole new market, they are always a smaller player, at the high-end of price/quality, and seem happy there. Even when they start out as the Big Player marketshare-wise, they eventually must yield to the mass-market low-end players, in terms of number of units sold.
That is a riskier position to play, for sure.
Well, at least you made it very clear where you're coming from. Thanks!
They’re still on top with the iPod, never really figured out why, they weren’t first the market, and there’s a lot of stuff about them that keeps me away from them (the iTunes interface and relative price being high on the list), but they’re still sitting pretty on top of that heap. Markets can be really hard to analyze, I’m just as unsure why iPhone lost it’s top seat. And I have no idea what the next 18 months holds for the pad market.
But I do know developers looking to make software for these platforms will be paying close attention to market share, trying to get the biggest possible audience for their product.
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