Android captures more than 50 percent of U.S. smartphone market - NPD

Examiner ^ | February 1st, 2011 | Michael Santo

[SmokingJoe]

On the heels of a Canalys report that said that Android had overtaken Symbian to become the top smart phone platform in the world, NPD reported later Monday that Android now owns over half (53 percent) of all U.S. consumer smartphone sales in Q4 2010.

That's not just a leading market share, it's enough to prevent a runoff in some elections. What's good for Android is bad for Windows Phone however: that same report noted that Windows Phone was outsold by creaky, dying Windows Mobile in that quarter.

Some of that might be attributable to the fact that Windows Phone had no CDMA support at launch. Thus, it only debuted at AT&T and T-Mobile in the U.S., while all of the Big 4 still carry Windows Mobile devices. However, NPD also noted that Windows Phone 7 entered the market with a lower share than either Android or webOS at their debuts.

Data from NPD showed Android with 53 percent; Apple iOS share dropping 4 points to 19 percent; RIM OS falling 2 points to tie Apple at 19 percent; Windows Mobile falling 3 points to 4 percent, and Windows Phone 7 debuting at 2 percent. Palm’s WebOS held steady at 2 percent.

[SmokingJoe]

NPD Q 4 2010 market share figures:

Android - 53% (+9% from Q 3);

iPhone - 19% (-4%);

RIM - 19% (-2%);

Windows Mobile - 4% (-3%);

Windows Phone 7 - 2%;

WebOS (Palm) 2%

[publana]

I <3 my android Droid X. Hate google though. Shame it’s them.

[Red_Devil 232]

NPR = ?

[Red_Devil 232]

NPD = ?

[Red_Devil 232]

NPD = ?

[SmokingJoe]

Do an internet search on NPD, if you haven’t heard of them before. They give out figures every month for video game sales, plus plenty of consumer items. Don’t blame others for your ignorance.

[marshmallow]

How smart phone users see each other.

[Red_Devil 232]

I blame the author of the article for my ignorance by him assuming everyone reading the article would know what NPD refered to!

[carjic]

Love my IPHONE. Was not impressed with the android I saw. So what is better about them?

[bigbob]

Do the same rules apply as on the Apple thread, like we can’t say ANYTHING bad about Apple or it’s guru?

Droid.

[keat]

So what is better about them?

We(Androids)have:

A bigger display

Adobe Flash Player (Jobs won't let you have it)

Better camera flash

SWYPE

HDMI Port (Which no one ever uses)

A bit faster at most things

You have:

More and better apps

iTunes

Better display and camera

Coolness factor

[kevkrom]

I wouldn’t be surprised to see a major uptick for Apple in 2011 Q1 due to the introduction of the iPhone on Verizon. It’s possible that the 4% drop in Q4 may have had more to do with folks waiting for Verizon rather than Apple losing out sales to other devices, but we’ll know a lot more in about 3 months.

[kevkrom]

Love my IPHONE. Was not impressed with the android I saw. So what is better about them?

They're both very good platforms (I've heard good things about the new Windows platform as well), they're just... different. Some people are going to naturally prefer one over the other(s), just because it appeals to their sensibilities more.

[discostu]

What’s better is that there are so many of them:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/search/ref=sr_nr_scat_2335752011_ln?rh=n%3A2335752011%2Ck%3Aandroid&keywords=android&ie=UTF8&qid=1296591325&scn=2335752011&h=be4cd7d06f9277f90393e31c746e6b7ebb19d68c

Just because the Android phone you saw didn’t impress you doesn’t mean there isn’t an Android phone out there that will.

[Above My Pay Grade]

Great grsphic. Funny and pretty much accurate and fair and balanced, though I’d say it applies more to the fanboys of each type of smartphone, as opposed to the average users.

[carjic]

I never said there wasn’t. I just asked what it was that was so impressive.

[Proud_USA_Republican]

Impressive for sure. It was a great quarter for Android phones.

But one must remember that the verizon iphone will be available in less than two weeks. I suspect many existing verizon users will switch to the iphone and a new iphone will be released this summer. That new phone is going to have serious cpu and gpu speed increases.

The one gripe I have against apple right now is their hints that no iphone will support LTE till 2012. That blows.

I’m going to be getting a new phone around summertime and so far, I’m interested in the iphone5 or Motorola Bionic so far. The samsung nexus phone I just demo’d at Best Buy this week was very impressive as well. The display quality was incredible.

[discostu]

I didn’t say you said there wasn’t. I pointed out that what’s so impressive about Android is the choices, there’s tons and tons of different Android phones, and that is impressive.

[SmokingJoe]

The iPhone could experience an uptick in market share with the Verizon iPhone launch yes, but Windows Phone 7 should get an increase in market share in Q1 2011 too, because Windows Phone 7 was only on sale for approx half of Q4 2010 in the US(this survey is for the US market only).
For Q1 2011, Windows Phone 7 will be on sale for the whole quarter, plus there is the WP7 upgrade this month (with cut and paste and multitasking), plus a possible CDMA Windows Phone 7 launch on Verizon and Sprint this quarter, plus WP7 inevitably grabbing market share from the 4% that Windows Mobile still has. I think this 2% will be the lowest that Windows Phone 7 market share will ever be.