Android eats away at iPhone market Share

Android’s momentum has been gaining pace for about 2 years now. We are starting to see just how much momentum with the recent release of Apple’s iPhone market share numbers. According to BSN website, iPhone unit sales were 8.4 million this quarter, down from 1Q of 8.75 million. However if you look at this same quarter of last year, as reported by the BBC, apple actually experienced growth of 61%. Despite the growth in sales numbers, apple’s share in the smartphone market is down to 14%, down from it’s peak of 17% in 3Q 2009. Given the growth in the number of available smartphones available to buyers these days, it is not surprising to see Apple’s share of the market dip by 3%. However, calculating market share is highly subjective in that some analysts classify smartphones differently. Is a feature phone considered a smart phone in market share calculation? HTC, Motorola and Samsung, all manufacturers of android based smartphones, have grown their unit sales and subsequent market share. Whereas RIM and Nokia sales have remained relatively flat. Market share numbers are bound to change with the release of Windows phone 7 in the coming months. Having Microsoft, Apple and Google all fighting for a place in our pockets is a good thing for smart phone consumers. The competition will lead to one upmanship with each company trying to provide a feature hook to grab our attention. The winner will be the one who will be able to break out of the silo, offering open, unified, and transparent usability. Somewhere in between the closed proprietorship of Apple and the wide open Android platform lies the user experience phone OS developers should be striving for. To be able to leverage the iPhone app store with Microsoft’s Xbox Live gaming power and Google’s seamless integration revolving around a user’s email account is the stuff dreams are made of.