Android's American market share soars, WinMo pays the price

Mobile manufacturer and platform market share stats for the US are in for the month of January thanks to comScore, and as usual, they tell a fascinating (and somewhat unpredictable) story of what's actually going on at the cash registers. Motorola -- which has long since fallen off its high horse on the global stage -- still maintains a commanding presence in the American market by representing some 22.9 percent of all subscribers, though that's down 1.2 percent from October 2009; that's particularly interesting in light of the Droid's success, and a possible sign that smartphones still aren't on the cusp of dominating the phone market overall. Samsung recently touted the fact that it had held onto the States' overall market share crown, though Sammy was undoubtedly referring to sales, not subscribers -- in other words, there are still a ton of legacy RAZRs out there inflating Moto's stats.

Turning our attention to smartphone platforms, BlackBerry OS, iPhone, and Android all saw gains, while Windows Mobile and Palm both saw significant downturns. You might use Palm's loss of 2.1 percent of overall market share in a single quarter as a big nail in webOS' coffin, but we're inclined to believe this includes legacy devices -- and considering the huge installed base of Palm OS-based handsets (Centros, for instance) that are coming off contract these days, it's neither surprising nor alarming to see that kind of drop. Android's gain, meanwhile, likely comes in large part from WinMo's whopping four percent loss -- it's no secret that WinMo 6.x is well past its expiration date with customers leaving in droves (even before Windows Phone 7 Series announcement), and our informal observations lead us to believe that many of those folks are heading for Android. After all, it's kind of convenient that Android gained 4.3 percent and WinMo lost about the same, isn't it? BlackBerrys still dominate the American smartphone landscape, and the iPhone market looks like it might be mature for the time being -- Apple added just 0.3 percent to its market share in the quarter, possibly a sign that folks are holding out for whatever Cupertino brings us come Summer. Is this a sign that Palm needs to step up its game yet again? Undoubtedly -- but at the same time, we wouldn't call the loss of those Palm OS subscribers a death knell just yet.

[sonola777 Posted Mar 12th 2010 3:57AM]

Great job by Google, to jump that much is very impressive. Equally impressive is the ability of the iPhone to have that much market share, when you consider the fact that it's only available on one carrier in the states. Should the iPhone come to Verison or Sprint, you can expect the iPhone to give RIM and it's Blackberry a serious run for its money.

[GmanC Posted Mar 12th 2010 4:21AM]

@juanvaldez

Really? So what market research did you do that showed people think getting the iPad would prevent them from owning the iPhone or vice versa?

It would completely contradict Apple's own marketing strategy which is to position the iPad directly at iPhone owners. We all know how much Apple suck at marketing don't we.... /roll eyes

[MisterK Posted Mar 12th 2010 7:34AM]

So I gave an Android phone a go, after hearing so much about how this thing is going to take over the world. You Apple haters are ridiculous. Android is terrible and you know it. There is no way you can use one and then the other and honestly say that Android comes out on top. It feels like a high school project.

[Gigaflop Posted Mar 12th 2010 12:00PM]

@MisterK Which Android phone? When did you try it?

Troll.

[juanvaldez Posted Mar 12th 2010 8:15AM]

@GmanC I'd say the day after the device is officially announced and analyst sales projections dropped by over 1M devices is good enough. Besides that just reading countless people in the know, but I see from you're posts you're all about the iPhone and iPad. I'll wait until G2, I'm glad I got the original iPhone, every other device they've been shipping recently has been drastically underwhelming hardware and supported by a sick app store. Good for them, it's business, but I'd like to think long term and support companies that go open above closed, standard above proprietary and choice above arrogance.

[christexaport Posted Mar 12th 2010 9:16AM]

Android has gained 7% of the US market in two years. Nokia/Symbian saw a gain of 5% globally JUST LAST QUARTER, almost equal to Android's total annual share in just a few months! Just for a bit of perspective.

I think in a few years, the US market will mirror the global numbers more closely. Nokia's size and scale allow it to literally engulf large sections of the market, and the US has shown they aren't really loyal to any platform, but to services, which most platforms will provide access to evenly in one way or another.

RIM will retool soon, as will Apple. Their growth will slow considerably. Symbian is poised to make a US land grab this year, finally having two low to medium grade devices on at&t and one on TMobile, with premium models soon to follow.

WebOS is out of there, and may be a target for RIM if they can afford some sort of merger or tech sharing. If Palm doesn't start making progress or bundle some worthwhile services, they will not be a major player for long. MeeGo, Bada, and other competitors will be too much to withstand long term.

[DerekUGA Posted Mar 12th 2010 9:42AM]

Just more proof that Microsoft needs to act quickly with WinMo7 in order to profit from the massive amount of heat they've generated for it. Now with WebOS showing Unreal tech running on their phones it's just a matter of time before people start looking towards other providers. As good as WinMo7 seems to be, nobody wants to wait 6 months to get it. As I said before, Apple didn't wait 6 months to take pre-orders on the iPad for a reason.

You have to strike while the iron is hot.

[cameron z Posted Mar 12th 2010 12:51PM]

I definitely tipped this.

[Inspector Gadget80 Posted Mar 12th 2010 6:45PM]

ANDROID IS GOING TO TAKE OVER THE WORLD JUST GIVE THEM FEW MONTHS AND people will stop buying iPhone. Just glad I waited to get a good ass ANDROID phone, I might even get a ANDROID TABLET.

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