While there are multiple manufacturers of Android devices it’s officially a clear cut case that Android now holds the vast majority of the smart phone market in the United States.
With over 51% of the market share Android, the little mobile OS that could, now is on more handsets then every other mobile OS that is available combined – including the once mighty iOS.
Apple has been losing ground to Google all year in the United States as Google’s devices have been spreading to more of the populace. iOS itself has fallen to having over 1/3rd of the market which is still a respectable number, though not the dominant force that it once was.
The real question though is iOS losing numbers to Android or is Android growing to new smart phone users? The answer is actually a little bit of both though most of the newer Android owners are first time smart phone buyers and not conversions.
So how is the breakdown done?
Android: 51.8%
iOS: 34.3%
BlackBerry: 8.1%
Windows (combined): 4.3%
Everyone else makes up the remainder of smart phone purchases in such a small market that it’s amazing anyone is even still carrying their phones or making the mistake of buying them.
Third place has fallen into such a low percentage it’s almost not even competition at that point. Blackberry has become a complete failure and while Window’s own percentage is once again growing they still have a long way to go for their new Windows 7 platform to be able to gain any real ground. Which is a shame since it’s their first mobile product to actually have some thought put into it.
It’s pretty clear from those numbers who the winner is. Or is it?
Things are of course not bleak for Apple. While their market share overall has dropped they are still holding the position of the #1 manufacturer of smart phones sold in the United States. So while Samsung, HTC, Motorola and a variety of other brands can claim that their system is run on the top selling operating system – none can claim to be the top seller of cell phones in the United States.
With Google’s fractured phone development it does get more phones into consumer hands it just keeps any single one of their phone providers from being able to have an overwhelming majority of handsets sold.
It also looks as if both iOS and Android devices made an improvement in their sales over other smart phones last month with both numbers being higher than their current respective market shares.
On the one hand I’m completely happy that Android is still running strong, on the other I wish there was more of a set number of makers of Android devices out there. As many high quality phones that have been released there are even a larger number of cheaply built phones available on the market which detracts from the brand. All of that is of course pretty much trumped though with the release of Android’s golden ticket – the Samsung Galaxy S3 which has become the flagship for all other current phones to strive to be.
Related Links: Nielsen
