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Android Grabs 52% Global Smartphone Market Share
With Nokia Still the Top Global Mobile Phone Vendor
According to new data from Gartner, more than fifty percent of all smartphones bought worldwide during the third quarter were running some flavor of the Android operating system. Worldwide sales of mobile devices totaled 440.5 million units in the third quarter of 2011, up 5.6 percent from the same period last year, according to Gartner. Of that total, 115 million of those were smartphones, with smartphone growth slowing slightly from last quarter, but still up 42% from last year. Nokia (23.9%), Samsung (17.8%) and LG (4.8%) took the top three spots in global mobile device market share. Android (52.5%), Symbian (16.9%) and iOS (15%) took the top three spots in terms of global smartphone OS market share.
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FFH5
Premium Member
join:2002-03-03
Tavistock NJ

1 edit

FFH5

Premium Member

Android vs iOS heating up with Android pulling ahead

Looks like Android is quickly pulling away from iOS as the leading smartphone OS. And looking at the numbers, MS's Windows Phone OS is falling even further behind at less than 2%. Apple still doing great because they sell the hardware as well as pushing iOS. But Google gets a lot more ad money by getting Android on more and more devices.

Worldwide Smartphone Sales to End Users by Operating System in 3Q11 (Thousands of Units)

xenophon
join:2007-09-17

xenophon

Member

Re: Android vs iOS heating up with Android pulling ahead

These numbers are of sales over the last quarter. I wonder what the breakdown is when showing how many _activated_ phones there are per OS.

Also, Samsung now claims to be selling more smartphones than Apple.

thegeek
Premium Member
join:2008-02-21
right here

thegeek

Premium Member

Re: Android vs iOS heating up with Android pulling ahead

I don't have the numbers in front of me but I read this morning on Gizmodo (I think, might have been another site) that Android is the leader in total market share with expected greater than 50% market share in 2013.

I can see Samsung being ahead of Apple for smartphone sales in total. They have a lot of devices that offer a wide range of choice for the consumer.

Gbcue
Premium Member
join:2001-09-30
Santa Rosa, CA

Gbcue to FFH5

Premium Member

to FFH5
It'll only be a matter of time until we see: "Available on the Android Market" and the developer won't even bother with the App Store.
dynodb
Premium Member
join:2004-04-21
Minneapolis, MN

dynodb

Premium Member

Nokia?

Nokia still makes phones? Huh. How far they've fallen in the past 5 years.
Automate
join:2001-06-26
Atlanta, GA

Automate

Member

Re: Nokia?

They are still number one for all phones but way down on the list for smart phones.
dynodb
Premium Member
join:2004-04-21
Minneapolis, MN

dynodb

Premium Member

Re: Nokia?

said by Automate:

They are still number one for all phones but way down on the list for smart phones.

Yeah, I saw that. Per the article they do a lot of sales in emerging markets, which makes sense I suppose.

Just noting that Nokia was arguably King of the phone manufacturers for a while, but (in the US market at least) have fallen by the wayside in terms of desirable phones.
TheBigCheese
join:2002-08-05
Philadelphia, PA

TheBigCheese to dynodb

Member

to dynodb
Did you see that they still have over 16% of the sales in smartphones? Compare that with 2-6% for Windows Mobile 7! I wonder what kind of user buys a Symbian phone nowadays seeing that it will no longer be developed. This means they are either committing to 2 years of Symbian use or paying $500-800 US$ for a Symbian phone!!! If Nokia can pull that off, they should be able to totally dominate the smartphone market with WM7, right?

Selenia
Gentoo Convert
Premium Member
join:2006-09-22
Fort Smith, AR

Selenia

Premium Member

Re: Nokia?

Symbian has been moved to open source, too. Who says that Nokia can't keep developing and updating it, if they are doing well with it and the demand is there? I am actually waiting for some open source devs to start playing with Symbian, like they did with UNiX when code went to public domain. You can see what they have done for UNiX. Why not Symbian?

AnonMe2
@comcastbusiness.net

AnonMe2

Anon

Sales versus in-use

This talks about smartphone market share in terms of units BOUGHT. Would be interesting to see what the IN USE market share looks like. I can think of about 10 droids that were bought and a few months later sitting in a draw somewhere, while the user went back to their old reliable device.
vukota
join:2007-09-01
Wheeling, IL

vukota

Member

Re: Sales versus in-use

said by AnonMe2 :

I can think of about 10 droids that were bought and a few months later sitting in a draw somewhere, while the user went back to their old reliable device.

I can think the same about iPhones (or even more Nokias), though to stash 10 droids (and not resell them) sounds like throwing money out. I hope you understand that (smart) phone which is more than 1-2 years old, is really old phone?
tmc8080
join:2004-04-24
Brooklyn, NY

tmc8080

Member

post/pre

you will also find it's particularly difficult to get an android phone on a prepaid plan that's NOT an "UNLIMITED" or high monthly cost plan! the rest of that market share is/was on previous granfathered unlimited plans..

nobody likes getting gouged by the large wireless carriers no matter what the smart phone platform.

IowaCowboy
Lost in the Supermarket
Premium Member
join:2010-10-16
Springfield, MA

IowaCowboy

Premium Member

I prefer iPhone

I have tried iPhone, BlackBerry, and Android. My weapon of choice is the iPhone.

I like the iPhone because it works seamlessly with my Mac, the contacts and calendars sync seamlessly, and it doubles as an iPod. I use it to listen to music in my car so I don't have to listen to 55 minutes each hour of commercials for products I find offensive. I have SiriusXM, but I just got another car so I have not gotten the mount installed yet in my new car but I have replaced the factory stereo with an aftermarket stereo with aux in and a USB port.
itguy05
join:2005-06-17
Carlisle, PA

itguy05

Member

You can have my Droid X

I can't wait until I can dump this POS and go back to an iPhone. tired of the lagginess, random reboots when playing music, and generally buggy experience. It wasn't this bad before Gingerbread but it did have other issues.

And it's not my phone - a friend with a Droid 2 has the same issues.

I came, I tried Android and it sucks - I want my iPhone 5!!!
Prespd
join:2004-03-10
Wyoming, MI

Prespd

Member

Re: You can have my Droid X

Yeah seriously, two guys at work have Droid 2 Global and they hate it as well. I have a new Droid 3 from work and my HTC EVO3D personal from Sprint.

I'd take the HTC any day. Sense and other variants of it are great but Moto's implementation of Android is buggy at best. It lags tremendously, and even the layouts of the way they implement their clients doesn't work as well as on an HTC device. Notice the lack of as many ROMs on XDA forums for droids vs. HTC devices.

So I agree, drop all Droids and pick and iPhone or HTC device.

Gbcue
Premium Member
join:2001-09-30
Santa Rosa, CA

1 recommendation

Gbcue

Premium Member

Re: You can have my Droid X

Motorola sucks at making phones. They should just quit and just make radios.

Selenia
Gentoo Convert
Premium Member
join:2006-09-22
Fort Smith, AR

Selenia

Premium Member

Re: You can have my Droid X

said by Gbcue:

Motorola sucks at making phones. They should just quit and just make radios.

+1
Happydude32
Premium Member
join:2005-07-16

1 recommendation

Happydude32 to itguy05

Premium Member

to itguy05
I feel the same way about the iPhone and iOS. I had the stupid iPhone (no doubt the worst piece of electronics I ever purchased) and after the initial 'I have an iPhone, I have an iPhone, guess what, I'm better then you because I have an phone with a shiny fruit on the back' feeling wore off, I felt like I flushed $300 down the toilet. An overrated phone, on a POS carrier (AT&T Mobility), running an operating system locked down tighter then Ft Knox, having to jailbreak if you wanted to do stuff like copy and paste and multitasking, you know things that every other smartphone and PDA on the planet could do. Not to mention iOS is just too damn boring, there’s no customizing it. 16 months with the stupid thing was more than I could take, bought the Evo as soon as it came out and upgraded to the Evo 3D. The ETF with AT&T was $110, well worth it to be rid of both their crappy poor excuse for a wireless network and that fruit phone. While I always hated Apple, I looked past that since well, it was an iPhone. I should have stuck with my gut instinct, although after using something as crappy and the iPhone and iOS, it really makes me appreciate Android that much more. I also opened up my mind and discovered there are much better MP3 players out there besides the iPod. I ditched my iPod Classic and bought a Sony Walkman MP3 Player which kicks the iPods ass both in UI and sound quality. Only thing I don’t like is the headphone jack is at the bottom.

The other day I was at someones house and they just bought their kid an iPhone 4S, she came up to me all excited and said ‘Look I got an iPhone’, so I took it out of her hand, hit the home button and slid my finger across the screen to unlock it. And then I said ‘Now what?’. She said ‘what do you mean?’, I replied, ‘what am I supposed do with it?’. She had a puzzled look on her face, then I pulled out my Evo 3D and told her to take a look at it. She unlocked it, liked all the weather animations, was blown away by the widgets especially the ESPN ScoreCenter ticker and the full screen calculator, and liked the whole flip clock/weather widget from HTC. I also showed off some novelties like 3D YouTube streaming and live wallpaper, the aquarium wallpaper does it everytime. She also liked how big the screen was, and while there is a stronger Verizon signal then Sprint signal at her house, web pages loaded much faster on my phone using Dolphin HD then on hers with Safari Mobile.

If you like looking at a boring wall of apps the iPhone is perfect for you, if you like variety and customizability, look else ware. I would have probably made a better impression if I showed off some Facebook and Twitter widgets since she’s into all that garbage, but I can’t stand that social networking horseshit so I don’t have any of that crap installed. While I came away with the impression that she liked the Evo 3D better, she would never admit it, since the Evo is not as cool as the iPhone among the 15 year old girl types.

I will never understand why someone would willing choose to be locked into Apples extremely closed ecosystem. While every year when Apple releases their latest iCrap, there may be a bunch of iSheep waiting in line at midnight to purchase the magical junk, stories like this prove that people are in fact educated and will go with the superior platform, Android, when all is said and done.
sonicmerlin
join:2009-05-24
Cleveland, OH

sonicmerlin

Member

Re: You can have my Droid X

You've never actually had an iPhone.
Happydude32
Premium Member
join:2005-07-16

Happydude32

Premium Member

Re: You can have my Droid X

You calling me a liar? Why would I lie? I had that POS phone for 16 months grueling months and hated it, before got rid of it. March 2009 - June 2010. If I still had access to my AT&T online account I'd show you, if I could find my sales receipt I'd scan it, but here's a screen cap of the final email I got from them. No mention of the iPhone by name, but who the hell in their right mind would subscribe to AT&T for any other reason. And here's a link to a post I made here a few years ago containing a screen cap from my iPhone.

So yes I had the iPhone, and yes I expect an apology. What’s the matter, do you think everyone who has anything negative to say about the precious Jesus Phone, is just making it up? The iPhone flat out sucks, I’ve use it long enough to know.

»iPhone Facebook Chat Problem


Selenia
Gentoo Convert
Premium Member
join:2006-09-22
Fort Smith, AR

2 edits

Selenia to Happydude32

Premium Member

to Happydude32
said by Happydude32:

I feel the same way about the iPhone and iOS. I had the stupid iPhone (no doubt the worst piece of electronics I ever purchased) and after the initial 'I have an iPhone, I have an iPhone, guess what, I'm better then you because I have an phone with a shiny fruit on the back' feeling wore off, I felt like I flushed $300 down the toilet. An overrated phone, on a POS carrier (AT&T Mobility), running an operating system locked down tighter then Ft Knox, having to jailbreak if you wanted to do stuff like copy and paste and multitasking, you know things that every other smartphone and PDA on the planet could do. Not to mention iOS is just too damn boring, there’s no customizing it. 16 months with the stupid thing was more than I could take, bought the Evo as soon as it came out and upgraded to the Evo 3D. The ETF with AT&T was $110, well worth it to be rid of both their crappy poor excuse for a wireless network and that fruit phone. While I always hated Apple, I looked past that since well, it was an iPhone. I should have stuck with my gut instinct, although after using something as crappy and the iPhone and iOS, it really makes me appreciate Android that much more. I also opened up my mind and discovered there are much better MP3 players out there besides the iPod. I ditched my iPod Classic and bought a Sony Walkman MP3 Player which kicks the iPods ass both in UI and sound quality. Only thing I don’t like is the headphone jack is at the bottom.

The other day I was at someones house and they just bought their kid an iPhone 4S, she came up to me all excited and said ‘Look I got an iPhone’, so I took it out of her hand, hit the home button and slid my finger across the screen to unlock it. And then I said ‘Now what?’. She said ‘what do you mean?’, I replied, ‘what am I supposed do with it?’. She had a puzzled look on her face, then I pulled out my Evo 3D and told her to take a look at it. She unlocked it, liked all the weather animations, was blown away by the widgets especially the ESPN ScoreCenter ticker and the full screen calculator, and liked the whole flip clock/weather widget from HTC. I also showed off some novelties like 3D YouTube streaming and live wallpaper, the aquarium wallpaper does it everytime. She also liked how big the screen was, and while there is a stronger Verizon signal then Sprint signal at her house, web pages loaded much faster on my phone using Dolphin HD then on hers with Safari Mobile.

If you like looking at a boring wall of apps the iPhone is perfect for you, if you like variety and customizability, look else ware. I would have probably made a better impression if I showed off some Facebook and Twitter widgets since she’s into all that garbage, but I can’t stand that social networking horseshit so I don’t have any of that crap installed. While I came away with the impression that she liked the Evo 3D better, she would never admit it, since the Evo is not as cool as the iPhone among the 15 year old girl types.

I will never understand why someone would willing choose to be locked into Apples extremely closed ecosystem. While every year when Apple releases their latest iCrap, there may be a bunch of iSheep waiting in line at midnight to purchase the magical junk, stories like this prove that people are in fact educated and will go with the superior platform, Android, when all is said and done.

While I don't agree about AT&T, who is overpriced, but no doubt best carrier in my region, I agree with everything here about the iphone. It's good for those who aren't power users because the OS can be used by simpletons(not saying ALL users are), is automatic for those who buy all Apple stuff, and is decently built. But I hated it and loathed it. I always felt it was a cage trying to keep me from what I actually want to do with the thing. I will use the term Happydude32 See Profile here used and say it's absolutely boring. You have to find the key for all these cages it tries to lock you into. Not to mention they all look the same. Throw in the late/lack of basic functionality steve went on about and it can drive power users absolutely berserk. I didn't last 16 months with it, like Steve. I ditched it in 5 months for my old Symbian that was customized the way I liked it and did more than you could probably imagine for an older Smartphone. Not to mention AT&T had some older plans still available for older phones(not anymore) and that made it cheaper to keep on a plan to boot. Android has some annoying qualities, but at least it lets you change them. At least it lets the user give it some of their own personality. I think it's a beautiful OS all in all and I rarely agree with this guy, on anything. I got it doing just what I want it to, not what Steve Jobs wants it to.

A plus with an iphone is you can sell it, pay your ETF and still profit. Crazy, isn't it?

zelgoog
Premium Member
join:2003-10-19
Oregon City, OR

zelgoog to Happydude32

Premium Member

to Happydude32
+5
I was fanatic with iPhone, even after Droid started pushing it's way forward. Eventually tried Droid and have relegated my iPhone/iPod touch to the kids room or dresser.
Even they prefer my droid. Definitely a superior platform.

If iPhone ever makes a comeback, and becomes better than it is, I'll jump back. No fan of product loyalty here. Superior quality wins my loyalty in the end. That's Android right now.

Selenia
Gentoo Convert
Premium Member
join:2006-09-22
Fort Smith, AR

Selenia

Premium Member

Re: You can have my Droid X

iphone beating Android would happen only if Apple relinquishes its 100% control of the platform. While some stock implementations are lame, the community has been hard at work at making Android what they want it to be. From what I've seen of ICS, it seems Google is watching. It seems to implement much of what we have been getting from apps and custom ROMs right into its core. Google open sourced it for many reasons, it seems. They wanted the community to work on it and also achieve widespread adoption for their ad revenue platform. That being said, it is easy to keep an Android Ad-free.
Selenia

Selenia to itguy05

Premium Member

to itguy05
You are hilarious. My device does none of that. Only issue with it is a now flaky charge port that I got a charging cradle for because the rest of the phone runs in top shape after over a year. Promising, considering the junk most companies manufacture these days. I love how capable it is after custom ROMing it with what I mention in the homescreen thread in the Android forum. Let's just say it's not carrier butchered, just as the iphone isn't. With those conditions, I'd rather run Android any day of the week. Granted, Android needs more tuning out of the box than iOS, but the rewards pay off into a phone that crushed my friend's iphones in terms of speed. The 4S with the A5 has one up on me, but none of last years phones did. Battery life was the one hitch, but I figured out several ways to keep usability and extend it. Now it can run SIP all night waiting for calls and I still have a full battery in the morning Saving my minutes and avoiding spots in my house that always drops calls using VOIP now doesn't have to drain the battery.
itguy05
join:2005-06-17
Carlisle, PA

itguy05

Member

Re: You can have my Droid X

Glad that yours does none of what mine does. But I can assure you mine will reboot randomly when playing music. Doesn't matter if it's an MP3 or an app. It will reboot playing a podcast or Slacker, Pandora, or from the music player. Wife and I listen to a podcast every week and it's always a crapshoot whether it will reboot or not.

Sometimes simple things like trying to make a call can be a laggy mess of an experience.

It didn't used to be this bad before Gingerbread. There were no random reboots and it wasn't this laggy. But it's about as bad as iOS 3 was on my iPhone 3G. Only difference was Apple eventually fixed it and I have no faith in Motorola to fix it or even upgrade it to ICS.

I could care less about the hacking, ROMs, etc. I want a phone that works and works well. The Droid X had promise and I really liked it when it came out. Over the last year and change it has gotten much worse. I've got no issues with iOS - been there before and I like the changes they have made. And it will integrate better with my Macs and the rest of my friends who have iPhones (iMessage vs the crap free texting apps).

Selenia
Gentoo Convert
Premium Member
join:2006-09-22
Fort Smith, AR

Selenia

Premium Member

Re: You can have my Droid X

I can't vouch for the Droid X, but it seems you were talking like Android itself is inherently bad, which is why I replied to you. My phone is a Samsung, as I really don't have much faith in Motorola myself anymore. One of the names that used to mean quality that now just produces run of the mill crap. ROMs are great because you can install exactly what you want and make your phone exactly what you want it to be, so don't overlook that avenue. It's easier to do than you probably think. iOS is ok, but run-of-the-mill to me.
Hoss
Sauters A Walrus
join:2000-10-05
Tulsa, OK

Hoss

Member

Get Apple to release the stranglehold..

...on the software they allow to be used to manage the phones, and I know a ton of people who might possibly return. Myself included.

Botched iOS updates, and the unusually bloated iTunes, plus MobileMe not having a free option for 3GS users was the straw that broke the camels back for me. I've been using Atrix 4G since March and haven't been happier.

MRCURAnon
@airband.net

MRCURAnon

Anon

Re: Get Apple to release the stranglehold..

You don't really need to use any sort of software anymore with iCloud.

Gbcue
Premium Member
join:2001-09-30
Santa Rosa, CA

Gbcue

Premium Member

Re: Get Apple to release the stranglehold..

said by MRCURAnon :

You don't really need to use any sort of software anymore with iCloud.

Oh, so something Android's had since the beginning of Android? Welcome to 2008, Apple. Maybe you'll try to re-invent the wheel.
sonicmerlin
join:2009-05-24
Cleveland, OH

sonicmerlin to Hoss

Member

to Hoss
said by Hoss:

...on the software they allow to be used to manage the phones, and I know a ton of people who might possibly return. Myself included.

Botched iOS updates, and the unusually bloated iTunes, plus MobileMe not having a free option for 3GS users was the straw that broke the camels back for me. I've been using Atrix 4G since March and haven't been happier.

said by Hoss:

...on the software they allow to be used to manage the phones, and I know a ton of people who might possibly return. Myself included.

Botched iOS updates, and the unusually bloated iTunes, plus MobileMe not having a free option for 3GS users was the straw that broke the camels back for me. I've been using Atrix 4G since March and haven't been happier.

You prefer the Atrix 4G that's burdened by the horrible Motoblur and lags worse than an iPhone 2G?

Botched iOS updates? What?

baloosh
join:2000-08-03
Dayton, OH

baloosh

Member

Re: Get Apple to release the stranglehold..

Keep fighting that good fight, Android OEMs. Fragment that market a bit more, confuse users a bit more, and ultimately take slim-as-bargain-basement-PCs margin... while Apple continues to have more money and make better product than all Google phones combined.

»www.macobserver.com/tmo/ ··· e_in_q3/
quote:
Apple's iPhone 4 was the top selling phone in the world for its entire reign at the top of Apple's iPhone product line, but according to market research firm NPD, even Apple's iPhone 3GS outsold every Android smartphone on the market.

In a release, the company said that the top five phones of the third quarter, which ended in September, were:

Apple iPhone 4
Apple iPhone 3GS
HTC EVO 4G
Motorola Droid 3
Samsung Intensity II

In other words, Apple's iPhone 4, which was more than a year old during the quarter, was the #1 phone during the quarter, while Apple&'s 25 month-old iPhone 3GS was also enough to beat every single one of the latest and greatest Android device, including all of the 4G LTE devices that had been released in the previous six months.

These results demonstrate both the strength and weakness of Apple&'s business model of offering a very limited number of models that are differentiated only by how much storage they have. During the 3rd quarter, Apple offered the iPhone 3GS and the iPhone 4 in two colors with three different storage sizes each. So, while Apple has the #2 smartphone platform, it has the #1 and #2 devices.

Compare that to Samsung, which sells Android and Windows Phone smartphones. A quick look on Samsung's "Phone landing" page asks customers to browse by carrier, not by device. The more adventuresome can view all 136 models Samsung makes (that includes feature phones as well as smartphones). In some cases, even when Samsung sells the same device on more than one carrier, they have different features and even different form factors.

But all those models add up. Apple may have had the top two devices during the quarter, but Samsung was the #1 mobile device maker during the quarter, just like Android has been the #1 smartphone platform for much of the last year.

Then again, Apple takes a monstrous portion of the entire cell phone industry's profits. This not only relates to the fact that Apple commands a much higher premium for its iPhone devices, it also makes a higher profit per device because of its highly concentrated product line.

During the November quarter, Apple will be offering three iPhone models, the iPhone 4S, the iPhone 4, and the going-on-three-years old iPhone 3GS, which will be free with a two year contract at AT&T. We would expect that lineup to result in Apple claiming the top three spots in rankings such as NPD's.

As we have repeatedly noted, there are many metrics with which to pass some kind of arbitrary judgement on who is beating whom in the smartphone market, but the reality is that Apple is playing a different game than OEMs like Samsung, HTC, and Motorola Mobility. The company's goals are also far, far different from Google's when it comes to that company's Android platform.

Google doesn't care in the least little bit about making a good phone. They care only about getting Android on as many platforms as possible and making advertising dollars off those platforms. They allow OEMs to butcher Android in every possible way... as long as it ships it makes money with ads... not user experience.

•••••
baloosh

baloosh

Member

Realism

The marketshare argument is such BS. 99% of the time marketshare = money.

This is not one of those cases.

This isn't football, basketball, baseball, soccer, etc. These are companies and the way they keep score is by who makes more money, not how much of their product they can give away with a haircut.
baloosh

1 edit

baloosh

Member

Re: Realism

Nevermind. Lol.