Android-Number 1 Smartphone Platform Now

[rajanmehta 4,056]

Google's Android Becomes The World's Leading Smart Phone Platform

Palo Alto, Singapore and Reading (UK) - Monday, 31 January 2011

Canalys Smart Phone Analysis, Quarterly Shipment Data

Canalys today published its final Q4 2010 global country-level smart phone market data, which revealed that Google's Android has become the leading platform. Shipments of Android-based smart phones reached 32.9 million, while devices running Nokia's Symbian platform trailed slightly at 31.0 million worldwide. But Nokia did retain its position as the leading global smart phone vendor, with a share of 28%. The fourth quarter also saw the worldwide smart phone market continue to soar, with shipments of 101.2 million units representing year-on-year growth of 89%. The final quarter took shipments for the year to fractionally below 300 million units, with an annual growth rate of 80% over 2009 (see table below).

In Q4 2010, volumes of Google OS-based smart phones (Android, OMS and Tapas) were again boosted by strong performances from a number of vendors, notably LG, Samsung, Acer and HTC, whose volumes across these platforms grew 4,127%, 1,474%, 709% and 371% respectively year-on-year. HTC and Samsung together accounted for nearly 45% of Google OS-based handset shipments.

'2010 has been a fantastic year for the smart phone market. After a difficult 2009, the speed with which the market has recovered has required real commitment and innovation from vendors and they have risen to the challenge,' said Canalys VP and Principal Analyst Chris Jones. 'But vendors cannot afford to be complacent. 2011 is set to be a highly competitive year with vendors looking to use new technology, such as dual-core processors, NFC and 3D displays, to differentiate their products and maintain value.'

At a regional level, Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) remained the largest market, with shipments totalling 38.8 million and a year-on-year growth rate of 90%. Nokia continued to lead in EMEA and Asia Pacific, but in 2010 it was overtaken by RIM in Latin America, which shipped over a million more units than Nokia in Q4 2010. The vendor was particularly helped by the popularity of its mid-range smart phones, such as its Curve family of devices.

The United States continued its reign as the largest country market in terms of shipments, at more than double the size of the Chinese smart phone market. RIM recaptured first place from Apple, as the latter experienced its usual US seasonal dip, and RIM benefited from the first full quarter of shipments for the BlackBerry Torch. HTC successfully maintained its third-place ranking in the US for the third consecutive quarter, driven by its speed to market with the latest Android updates and new Windows Phone 7 devices.

'The US landscape will shift dramatically this coming year, as a result of the Verizon-Apple agreement,' said Canalys Analyst Tim Shepherd. 'Verizon will move its focus away from the Droid range, but the overall market impact will mean less carrier-exclusive deals, while increasing the AT&T opportunity for Android vendors, such as HTC, Motorola and Samsung.' Android was by far the largest smart phone platform in the US market in Q4 2010, with shipments of 12.1 million units – nearly three times those of RIM's BlackBerry devices. Windows Phone 7 devices appeared too late in the quarter to take full advantage of holiday season purchasing. As a result, Microsoft lost share in the United States, from 8% in Q4 2009 to 5% in Q4 2010.

Analysis of the published country-level data shows that, around the world, the strength of smart phone performances remained diverse. In South Korea, for example, shipments grew from under 700,000 units in Q4 2009 to just under 3.4 million units in Q4 2010, making the country a top 10 market. In Japan, Android shipments have taken off over the past year, with nearly 1.4 million units shipping from local as well as international vendors, such as HTC. More Japanese vendors have also announced plans to launch Android devices in 2011, such as NEC Casio and Panasonic. Under pressure from Huawei and Samsung in particular, Nokia's share in China slipped to 56%, down from 76% a year ago, despite growing its volume in the country by over 70% in the same period. Albeit from a smaller base, the Chinese market grew 134% year-on-year, notably faster than the US market, which grew at 64% in the quarter.

Source: http://www.canalys.c...1/r2011013.html

[kkdeep 6]

Way to go Android!! Thanks for sharing.

[Greatest 55]

Androidians rule....

[parin 857]

Yes Android is the Best

[kshah 452]

As on today android is the best and improving. But WM7 seems to be equally good thought it lakes few very basic functionalities like copy paste but I hope WM7 threat android to make it even better.

As I like android.

[rajanmehta 4,056]

A Picture is worth 1000 Words. Just See The Green Line Journey. Fascinating.

[Genius 817]

I have always been fan of windows sets have been using it since O2

Good to see windows 7 doing well even I have seen one set it was too good let it come in cdma

Genius says so :-x

[rajanmehta 4,056]

You have all the horses in your stable..iPhone,Fascinate,Blackberry,Windows,Ideos,Pixi..Bus jis din race ho tagda ghoda laga diya..Always a Winner..

Kaise sambhalte hai itne Ghode..

[Genius 817]

Its much easy than being married lol rajan

Genius says so :-x

[Honest 836]

^^^

Achaa ????

Bachelors at Rimweb.....sun rahe ho Genius Bhai kya keh rahe hain ????

[rajanmehta 4,056]

Who is Winning the U.S. Smartphone Battle?

March 3, 2011. nielsenwire.

The answer depends on whether you're looking at operating systems or manufacturers.

The battle for the hearts and minds of consumer smartphone owners continues to be a heated one according to data just released by The Nielsen Company. When it comes to consumer marketshare by operating system, Android (29%) appears to be pulling ahead of RIM Blackberry (27%) and Apple iOS (27%). But an analysis by manufacturer shows RIM and Apple to be the winners compared to other device makers since they are the only ones creating and selling smartphones with their respective operating systems. HTC follows with 12 percent of consumer smartphone owners having an HTC Android device and 7 percent owning an HTC device running a Microsoft OS. Ten percent of consumer smartphone owners had a Motorola Android device and one percent owned a Motorola device running a Microsoft OS.

Finally, of the three most popular smartphone operating systems, Android seems to attract more young consumers.

[dkaile 1,051]

Android passes BlackBerry as No. 1 on smartphones http://money.cnn.com/2011/03/07/technology/android/index.htm

[digitalnirvana 646]

The latest figures for American smartphone usage reveal that the new Windows Phone 7 platform has not halted Microsoft’s decline in the category. Data from comScore MobiLens shows a 1.7 per cent fall in Microsoft's share, from 9.7 per cent to 8 per cent in the three months ending in January 2011.

Google’s Android operating system rose by 7.7 per cent and Apple’s iOS platform showed a 0.1 per cent increase. BlackBerry-maker Research in Motion showed a decline in line with recent trends, from 35.8 per cent to 30.4 per cent.

Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 software was launched at the end of October in Europe and Asia, and at the beginning of November in North America. The new figures are the first to include the period when it was on sale, and indicate that customers are continuing to leave Microsoft in favour of other operating systems, despite the new software. Microsoft’s deal with Nokia and with some US carriers may, however, stem that tide.

At Mobile World Congress in Barcelona executives who did not wish to be named reported that Microsoft was disappointed with sales and consumer impressions of WP7. The company announced some updates to the platform at the show.

Data from Nielsen, however, puts Microsoft on a 10 per cent share of the American market over the same period. It places Android on 29 per cent and both Apple and BlackBerry on 27 per cent.

Source: telegraph.co.uk

[KanagaDeepan 1,084]

Though Android reaching the throne is expected earlier, but the time it took (speed) to capture the first place is simply mind-blowing...

[digitalnirvana 646]

Numbers reveal: BlackBerry owners looking to switch to iPhone and Android devices

Nielsen, one of the biggest market research companies in the world, has released its smartphone market numbers for the past 6 months. Like all market research, it has to be taken with a pinch of salt, but the numbers are interesting anyway. Current figures for new subscribers in the US peg Google/Android’s market share at 27%, RIM/BlackBerry’s share at 33%, and Apple/iPhone’s share 23%. While Android’s rising numbers have proponents of the green robot jumping with joy, one has to agree that Apple, with a single device, is still strong and competing against Android’s innumerable devices. In terms of all subscribers in the US for the quarter ending June 2010, BlackBerry has 35% of the share, iPhone 28%, Windows Mobile 15%, while Android is still at a measly 13%, though rising as fast as WinMo is falling.

Perhaps the most interesting statistic is of the survey “Next Desired Smartphone OS”, which reveal that more than 50% of BlackBerry owners are looking to switch to iPhone (29%) and Android (21%) devices with their next purchase. These are astonishing numbers, quite indicative however of how the iPhone and Android devices are sneaking up on both corporate and consumer markets as the must-have devices. We’ll just have to wait for RIM’s BlackBerry OS 6.0 to make its mark and wow back customers with a shiny new interface.

Source: thinkdigit.com

Note to mods - please could you increase the image size, could not do it. Thanks.

[HetalDP 947]

@DigitalNirvana Your Graphs are Quite OLD it show Q2 / 2010 and its already 2011 / Q1

[digitalnirvana 646]

Yes Hetal ji just noticed that, you are correct...was in hurry to post after reading the topic because thought the 3rd graph was amazing my bad...

[digitalnirvana 646]

Report: Android app market growing faster than iPhone apps

BARCELONA -- The Android Market is growing at three times the rate of Apple's App Store, according to a report released by mobile security firm Lookout.

The number of Android Market apps increased about 127 percent since August, while the number of apps in the Apple App Store grew at a rate of 44 percent during that period, the company said in its latest App Genome Project report, which is based on an analysis of more than 500,000 mobile apps for those mobile platforms.

"The Android is maturing fast," but the Apple App Store still has significantly more apps, Lookout Chief Technology Officer Kevin Mahaffey told CNET in a phone interview. Based on Of the apps available to U.S. users, which reflects the apps Lookout analyzed, there are 350,000, apps for the iPhone compared to Android's 88,000, which more than doubled from 39,000 in August, according to Lookout. Overall, however, there are more than 150,000 Android apps, according to Google.

Apple may have a higher percentage of paid apps but the number is rising on Android - from 22 percent of the total to 34 percent since August, while the number of paid apps in the Apple App Store declined slightly, from 70 percent of the total to 66 percent.

"If apps continue to be developed for each platform at this same rate, the Android Market will have more apps than the Apple App Store by mid-2012," Mahaffey said.

Read more: http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13970_7-20032228-78.html

[digitalnirvana 646]

Android will rule the smartphones, WP7 will be second, says Gartner

According to the analysts over at Gartner, Android will be the most popular mobile OS in the next four years reaching almost 50% market share. Meanwhile Windows Phone will catch up and overtake the second place from iOS by 2015 with 20% market share.

This is what the latest Gartner's report predicts. Quite expectedly the Symbian market share is shrinking rapidly, while those of Android's and Windows Phone will go up.

Apple's iOS will have the second place by the end of 2012, but Microsoft will overtake it by 2015. It seems both Android and iOS will lose some users in favor of Windows Phone. It's predicted that when this happens Apple will change its pricing policy in order to maintain its share.

RIM will also have a user withdrawal when its migration from BlackBerry OS to QNX, the OS behind the Playbook, starts in 2012 (we're not sure we've heard of those plans before).

It seems there will be two major changes in the next four years - Android will be the king of the mobiles (eating the Symbian pie), while the Microsoft-Nokia cooperation will push the Windows Phone up to the second place. It seems logical, but we'll wait and see how things will turn up.

We already saw quite similar predictions in the IDC report a week ago. There are a few minor differences into the distribution of shares (a bit smaller Android share and a bigger Windows Phone one in 2015), but both reach to the same conclusion – Android will be the biggest player in 2015 and Windows Phone will beat iOS for the second place.

Edited April 10, 2011 by digitalnirvana

[Karthik R 246]

Google said during the company's earnings call on Thursday that more than 3 billion apps have been installed from the Android Market so far, and around 350,000 smartphones are activated every day. The new figures highlight the exceptional growth of Android, but when it comes to app stores, Apple's is still king.

It didn't take Google long to reach the 3 billion downloaded apps milestone for the Android Market. It took 20 months to reach 1 billion apps installed; the second billion took another five months; and then it took only two months for Google to reach 3 billion -- a 50 percent increase from the previous quarter.

However, it's unclear how Google counted the app installs, if it included third-party stores (like Amazon's), or just the Android Market. Electronista's hunch is that all stores were included in Google's count. The balance between paid and free apps is also unspecified.

Impressive Android Market stats aside, Apple's App Store is still at the top. Apple announced earlier this year that its marketplace reached 10 billion downloads, more than three times more than Android's performance. When it comes to the number of apps, Apple rules too: the App Store has more than 350,000 apps, while the Android Market clocks in at an estimated half of that number.

Google also confirmed that Android is now seeing around 350,000 activations per day, which would mean that roughly around 10.5 million Android devices are sold per month. Apple did not recently disclose how many iOS devices it activates per day, which were 270,000 at the last count in October 2010; this number, however, could match Google's, considering the launch of the iPhone on Verizon and the iPad 2.

- PC World

To prove its point about Android activations, Google made this cool video

[rajanmehta 4,056]

U.S. Smartphone Market: Who's the Most Wanted?

Nielsen Monthly Survey of U.S. smartphone consumers

26th April 2011

Things change quickly in the U.S. smartphone market.

According to The Nielsen Company's monthly surveys of U.S. mobile consumers from July-September 2010, consumers planning on getting a new smartphone had a very clear preference: A third (33%) wanted an Apple iPhone. Slightly more than a quarter (26%) said they desired a device with the Google Android operating system (OS). And 13 percent said they wanted a RIM Blackberry.

But consumer preferences can be fickle. Those same surveys for January 2011 – March 2011 show just how much things have changed: According to the latest figures, 31 percent of consumers who plan to get a new smartphone indicated Android was now their preferred OS. Apple's iOS has slipped slightly in popularity to 30 percent and RIM Blackberry is down to 11 percent. Almost 20 percent of consumers are unsure of what to choose next.

Those dynamics are already translating into sales. Half of those surveyed in March 2011 who indicated they had purchased a smartphone in the past six months said they had chosen an Android device. A quarter of recent acquirers said they bought an iPhone and 15 percent said they had picked a Blackberry phone.

Which brings us to the installed base of smartphone consumers: As of March 2011, 37 percent of mobile consumers who owned a smartphone had a device with an Android OS. Apple's iOS, claimed by 27 percent of consumers, is now outpacing Blackberry, which has 22 percent of the market.

[Karthik R 246]

Android market offers more freebies than Apple

A new analytical report has revealed that there are now more free apps on the Android Market than on Apple’s App Store.

Google Android Market now has 134,342 free applications, compared to Apple’s 121,845 free applications. If all application stores maintain their current growth pace, approximately five months from now Google Android Market will be the largest store in terms of number of applications followed by the Apple App Store for iPhone and iPad, Windows Phone 7 Marketplace, BlackBerry App World and Nokia Ovi Store.

The Windows Phone 7 Marketplace will also be larger than the Nokia Ovi Store and BlackBerry App World prior to the Windows Phone 7 Marketplace being available for even a full year.

The report also claims that one year after launching the iPad, Apple will be confronted with its first serious competition as both BlackBerry and Google enter the emerging tablet market.

Apple has already seized momentum and grown the App Store for iPad in the first year to 75,755 applications developed by 21,975 publishers. Daily downloads in the Top 100 Overall paid and free applications for iPad combined exceed 500,000, while the daily revenue in the Top 100 paid is approximately $400,000 excluding in-app purchases. However, publishers are still targeting multiple services and many of the top publishers on the iPad already publish cross-platform.

58% of the 50 most popular publishers have already developed applications for non-Apple platforms.

via : wirelessfederation

[digitalnirvana 646]

It remains to be seen how the Android market can be more profitable than App Store with more free apps, after all, huge amount of Apple's revenues comes from apps.

[rajanmehta 4,056]

Android Increases Smart Phone Market Leadership With 35% share

Asia Pacific becomes largest smart phone region in Q1-2011 with 37% of shipments

India Registered Triple Digit Growth

Canalys Research 4 May 2011

Canalys today released its worldwide country-level smart phone market data for Q1 2011, revealing that Android led the market for the second quarter running, and, with 35.7 million units shipped, increased its share to 35%. At the same time, Canalys confirmed that Asia Pacific (APAC) became the largest smart phone market region, with year-on-year growth of 98% to 37.3 million units, putting it ahead of Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) for the first time since Q3 2007. On a country basis, mainland China, South Korea and India delivered strong volumes and registered triple-digit growth.

Overall, worldwide smart phone shipments grew 83% to 101.0 million units. Though its market share shrank from 39% a year ago to 24% in Q1 2011, Nokia held onto its worldwide leadership position with 24.2 million units shipped – a 13% year-on-year rise – despite the current realignment of its platform strategy, staying ahead of RIM in EMEA and Apple in APAC. APAC became the largest region for Nokia, accounting for 53% of its overall shipments, overtaking EMEA by more than 3 million units.

'Nokia is under considerable strain in the smart phone market as it transitions strategy, platforms and people,' said Canalys Principal Analyst Pete Cunningham. 'Its worldwide reach, however, should never be underestimated. Canalys' country-level data shows that the vendor remains number one in 28 countries, including mainland China, where it grew 79% to 8.9 million units, thanks in part to Chinese New Year shipments.'

At a platform level, Android's continued dominance was boosted by good performances by a number of key vendors. 'HTC, Samsung, LG, Motorola and Sony Ericsson drove Android shipments in the first quarter, with each vendor shipping well over 3 million devices,' said Cunningham. 'Samsung also shipped nearly 3.5 million bada operating system-based smart phones, outperforming total shipments of Windows Phone devices by more than a million units.'

'Samsung's own operating system development, combined with the branding and investment in its Wave smart phones at mid-tier prices, has led to good uptake in developed markets, such as France, the UK and Germany,' continued Cunningham. 'This achievement shows that there is still room for multiple operating systems, and that vendors can benefit from maintaining control of device development to hit the right markets and price points.'

Nokia, Apple, RIM, Samsung and HTC were the top five global smart phone vendors, as in Q4 2010. Apple continued to make market share gains, reaching 19%. RIM's share, however, dropped in Q1, as its portfolio awaited a refresh and the vendor focused on the PlayBook launch. Overtaking Motorola, LG moved into sixth place, with its Optimus series of Android smart phones doing well in all regions.

The US remained the largest country for smart phone shipments, with Apple substantially extending its lead, achieving a share of 31% and growth of over 150% year on year. Volumes were boosted significantly by shipments of the iPhone 4 with Verizon Wireless. Android remained the leading smart phone platform in the US for the third consecutive quarter, with a 49% share. Growing by well over 200%, HTC became the leading Android vendor in the US and the second-place smart phone vendor in the country overall.

'Shipments of its EVO series, Inspire 4G and Thunderbolt enhanced HTC's strong performance in this quarter,' said Canalys Vice President and Principal Analyst Chris Jones. 'The vendor has a wide and regularly refreshed portfolio, covering multiple network technologies, which puts it in a strong position both in the US and worldwide.'

The popularity of 4G-branded models, such as the Samsung Galaxy S 4G, HTC EVO Shift 4G and the T-Mobile myTouch 4G, heavily influenced US market shipments this past quarter. Q1 also marked the first full quarter of LTE smart phone shipments, following Verizon's 4G network launch in December 2010. Canalys estimates that shipments of these devices reached over 600,000 units.

'We are starting to see some significant benefits from marketing high-speed networks to consumers in the US, as end users become more familiar with the performance and technical aspects of their smart phones,' said Jones. 'It's a trend that will inevitably spread around the world over the coming years as carriers upgrade their network infrastructures.'

[Karthik R 246]

Android Continues to Win at Blackberry's Expense

More bad news for RIM's Blackberry: A recent survey of cell phone users shows Google's Android is continuing to gobble up its market share.

In online forums, consumers cite Android's superior user experience, the broad selection of carriers and handsets that offer its operating system, and its array of innovative applications as reasons why they are migrating to Google.

Those sentiments are put into focus by the latest MobiLens survey, spelling more trouble for Blackberry, which has been in free-fall for some time now. The survey aims to measure trends in the U.S. mobile phone industry by polling more than 30,000 users.

In January, Blackberry lost its long-held number one position in the MobiLens ranking to Google Android. At that point Blackberry held 30.4 percent of the market share, less than 1 percentage point behind Android at 31.2 percent.

The latest comScore MobiLens survey in March shows Blackberry's share fell to 27.1 percent and Google opened its lead by almost 8 percentage points, grabbing 34.7 of the market share.

That means more than a third of all smartphone handsets used in the U.S. today run Android.

In some ways, Android has adopted the same position on the smartphone as Windows occupies on the desktop--it's become the default platform for hardware vendors to use who don't want to go to the expense of developing proprietary software.

That doesn't mean people are necessarily opting for Android as their preferred choice. Because Android is used by the majority of different smartphone manufacturers, the growth in its userbase is likely just an indication that the smartphone marketplace is growing.

The MobiLens data matches recent figures released by research firm Canalys, which puts Android's share at 35 percent, although data from Nielsen puts Android even higher at around 50 percent of the marketplace.

Microsoft and Palm also saw modest declines in market share since January, according to the MobiLens survey. Microsoft dropped half a percentage point, while Palm dropped 0.4 percentage points. Microsoft will be dismayed as customers vote with their wallets when it comes to the Windows Phone 7 product launched late last year.

On the flip side: After a slight slip in January, Apple's market share continues a slow but steady rate of growth. The launch of the iPhone on Verizon might be helping, along with the fact deals involving the maturing iPhone 3GS handset are becoming more competitive in preparation for the arrival of the iPhone 5 later this year. It'll be interesting to see if the recently released white iPhone significantly boosts Apple's numbers.

The real winner is Google Android, which is leaving the rest of the field in the dust.

MobiLens figures for the last six months make it look like Android is s***ing-up disaffected Blackberry users. The market share of other platforms has held roughly steady aside from slight growth or declines, so it's unlikely they're responsible for RIM's misfortune.

via : PC World