Android Proving a Worthy Contender to iPhone, RIM

By  |  Tuesday, April 6, 2010 at 9:59 am

comScore’s latest numbers show that Google’s Android platform is really beginning to gain some traction in the smartphone market. From the November 2009 to February period, Android took 9 percent of the market, up sharply from 3.8 percent in the previous three month period.

Notable among comScore’s findings is the fact that Android seems to be attracting a different user base than either market-leading RIM or Apple. RIM managed to increase its share to 42.1 percent, while Apple maintained its 25.4 percent share. Instead, Android’s victims are Microsoft (who fell four percent to 15.1%) and Palm (7.2 to 5.4 percent).

Overall, smartphones have shown 21 percent year-over-year growth, verifying that there is still plenty of room for growth in this still somewhat nascent market.

I’ve long said since Verizon’s “iDont” commercials that the Android platform would for the most part not take market share from Apple, and this has proved that theory somewhat. Those on the platform are probably more likely new to smartphones overall, and the open nature of the OS means that the availability of Android phones is much broader (there is now at least one Android-powered phone on every major US cellular provider).

One thing can be said now, I think: Android is indeed a success.

 
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1 Comments For This Post

  1. Hamranhansenhansen Says:
    April 6th, 2010 at 7:27 pm

    > Android is indeed a success.

    I don’t see it, myself. Because it still exists?

    If you add iPod touch into these numbers, Apple has over 50%. If you remove the Android phones that are running v1 and will never be updated to v2, Android goes down to 5%. That gives you a better look at the state of the app platforms, the machines that developers are targeting.

    You could say that Verizon Droid has been a success for Verizon. Nexus One has most certainly not been a success. But the overall Android platform has not achieved many of its stated goals, and certainly not lived up to the bluster that’s surrounded it.

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