NPD: Android ousts iPhone OS for second place in US smartphone market
By Donald Melanson 
posted May 10th 2010 12:23PM
posted May 10th 2010 12:23PM
"We're number two" might not be the chant everyone's after, but we have a feeling that Google is more than satisfied with that in this case... for now. According to market research firm NPD, Google's Android operating system edged up into second place in the US smartphone market during the first quarter of the year, leaving it still well behind RIM's BlackBerry OS, but marking the first time that it has moved ahead of Apple's iPhone OS. Specifically, NPD found that RIM maintained a strong 36 percent market share for the quarter, with Android coming in at 28 percent, and iPhone OS in third at 21 percent. The growth for Android was attributed largely to strong carrier support -- like Verizon's buy-one-get-one free offer which, incidentally, also helped Verizon maintain a 30 percent smartphone market share, which is just slightly behind AT&T at 32 percent, and ahead of T-Mobile and Sprint at 17 and 15 percent, respectively.
Disclaimer: NPD's Ross Rubin is a contributor to Engadget.
Disclaimer: NPD's Ross Rubin is a contributor to Engadget.
Android Shakes Up U.S. Smartphone Market
First quarter 2010 information from The NPD Group's Mobile Phone Track reveals a shift in the smartphone market, as Android OS edged out Apple's OS for the number-two position behind RIM
PORT WASHINGTON, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Android operating system (OS) continued to shake up the U.S. mobile phone market in the first quarter (Q1) of 2010, moving past Apple to take the number-two position among smartphone operating systems, according to The NPD Group, a leading market research company. NPD's wireless market research reveals that based on unit sales to consumers last quarter the Android operating system moved into second position at 28 percent behind RIM's OS (36 percent) and ahead of Apple's OS (21 percent).
"As in the past, carrier distribution and promotion have played a crucial role in determining smartphone market share"
"As in the past, carrier distribution and promotion have played a crucial role in determining smartphone market share," said Ross Rubin, executive director of industry analysis for NPD. "In order to compete with the iPhone, Verizon Wireless has expanded its buy-one-get-one offer beyond RIM devices to now include all of their smartphones."
Strong sales of the Droid, Droid Eris, and Blackberry Curve via these promotions helped keep Verizon Wireless's smartphone sales on par with AT&T in Q1. According to NPD's Mobile Phone Track, smartphone sales at AT&T comprised nearly a third of the entire smartphone market (32 percent), followed by Verizon Wireless (30 percent), T-Mobile (17 percent) and Sprint (15 percent).
"Recent previews of BlackBerry 6, the recently announced acquisition of Palm by HP, and the pending release of Windows Phone 7 demonstrates the industry's willingness to make investments to address consumer demand for smartphones and other mobile devices," Rubin said. "Carriers continue to offer attractive pricing for devices, but will need to present other data-plan options to attract more customers in the future."
The continued popularity of messaging phones and smartphones resulted in slightly higher prices for all mobile phones, despite an overall drop in the number of mobile phones purchased in the first quarter. The average selling price for all mobile phones in Q1 reached $88, which is a 5 percent increase from Q1 2009. Smartphone unit prices, by comparison, averaged $151 in Q1 2010, which is a 3 percent decrease over the previous year.
Methodology: The NPD Group compiles and analyzes mobile device sales data based on more than 150,000 completed online consumer research surveys each month. Surveys are based on a nationally balanced and demographically-representative sample, and results are projected to represent the entire population of U.S. consumers. Note: Sales figures do not include corporate/enterprise mobile phone sales.
About The NPD Group, Inc.
The NPD Group is the leading provider of reliable and comprehensive consumer and retail information for a wide range of industries. Today, more than 1,800 manufacturers, retailers, and service companies rely on NPD to help them drive critical business decisions at the global, national, and local market levels. NPD helps our clients to identify new business opportunities and guide product development, marketing, sales, merchandising, and other functions. Information is available for the following industry sectors: automotive, beauty, commercial technology, consumer technology, entertainment, fashion, food and beverage, foodservice, home, office supplies, software, sports, toys, and wireless. For more information, contact us, visit http://www.npd.com/, or follow us Twitter at https://twitter.com/npdgroup.
First quarter 2010 information from The NPD Group's Mobile Phone Track reveals a shift in the smartphone market, as Android OS edged out Apple's OS for the number-two position behind RIM
PORT WASHINGTON, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Android operating system (OS) continued to shake up the U.S. mobile phone market in the first quarter (Q1) of 2010, moving past Apple to take the number-two position among smartphone operating systems, according to The NPD Group, a leading market research company. NPD's wireless market research reveals that based on unit sales to consumers last quarter the Android operating system moved into second position at 28 percent behind RIM's OS (36 percent) and ahead of Apple's OS (21 percent).
"As in the past, carrier distribution and promotion have played a crucial role in determining smartphone market share"
"As in the past, carrier distribution and promotion have played a crucial role in determining smartphone market share," said Ross Rubin, executive director of industry analysis for NPD. "In order to compete with the iPhone, Verizon Wireless has expanded its buy-one-get-one offer beyond RIM devices to now include all of their smartphones."
Strong sales of the Droid, Droid Eris, and Blackberry Curve via these promotions helped keep Verizon Wireless's smartphone sales on par with AT&T in Q1. According to NPD's Mobile Phone Track, smartphone sales at AT&T comprised nearly a third of the entire smartphone market (32 percent), followed by Verizon Wireless (30 percent), T-Mobile (17 percent) and Sprint (15 percent).
"Recent previews of BlackBerry 6, the recently announced acquisition of Palm by HP, and the pending release of Windows Phone 7 demonstrates the industry's willingness to make investments to address consumer demand for smartphones and other mobile devices," Rubin said. "Carriers continue to offer attractive pricing for devices, but will need to present other data-plan options to attract more customers in the future."
The continued popularity of messaging phones and smartphones resulted in slightly higher prices for all mobile phones, despite an overall drop in the number of mobile phones purchased in the first quarter. The average selling price for all mobile phones in Q1 reached $88, which is a 5 percent increase from Q1 2009. Smartphone unit prices, by comparison, averaged $151 in Q1 2010, which is a 3 percent decrease over the previous year.
Methodology: The NPD Group compiles and analyzes mobile device sales data based on more than 150,000 completed online consumer research surveys each month. Surveys are based on a nationally balanced and demographically-representative sample, and results are projected to represent the entire population of U.S. consumers. Note: Sales figures do not include corporate/enterprise mobile phone sales.
About The NPD Group, Inc.
The NPD Group is the leading provider of reliable and comprehensive consumer and retail information for a wide range of industries. Today, more than 1,800 manufacturers, retailers, and service companies rely on NPD to help them drive critical business decisions at the global, national, and local market levels. NPD helps our clients to identify new business opportunities and guide product development, marketing, sales, merchandising, and other functions. Information is available for the following industry sectors: automotive, beauty, commercial technology, consumer technology, entertainment, fashion, food and beverage, foodservice, home, office supplies, software, sports, toys, and wireless. For more information, contact us, visit http://www.npd.com/, or follow us Twitter at https://twitter.com/npdgroup.
@Wesscoast
Also, bravo Android for doing so well with its FREE OS... We'll see how the lawsuits pan out.. this Android thing might just a be a money maker. As it is now, its looking like a free OS he gives out is gonna cost them an arm and a leg.
By the way, thanks Android for getting us out of that Adobe lawsuit. Thanks to you, that 'monopoly' lawsuit will last about a week, then get thrown out. :D
OOps... turned out this is based on Surveys and not actual Sales data.
:(
Aw... too bad.
Actually this news isn't looking good for all the Adobe "Flash is the best thing since sliced bread" whiners who keep going on about how Apple's "closed" system is stifling competition with their "monopoly", is it?
@hill60 ...and why would that be?
@fast Why?
The simple fact as outlined in this article, the soon to be Flash supporting Android OS apparently has a larger marketshare of devices having access to the Android marketplace which is in direct competition with the App store.
It would be pretty hard for Adobe to make claims of Apple having a monopoly and displaying anti-competitive behaviour in such a competitive market, mainly brought about as a response to the introduction of the iPhone in 2007.
"There are lies, damn lies and statistics", while im not exactly questioning the validity of the " I Want an IPhone Survey" I just say this the Iphone can come to Verizon and I'd still choose the ANDROID. I simply think ANDROID is the superior OS and HTC to me just screams quality. SN: Sure the EVO will be fantastic good for Sprint but I'd be a fool to switch carries where I live. Verizon's ANDROID suit me fine.
We did it.
@kenny goo
*bursts out laughing....
so pathetic
@Wesscoast
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/satire
Calm down Apple Defense Force.
I have to say I'm surprised (and grats Google). I was expecting this news in early 2011. Not this early on.
I think Android will continue to steadily climb over the next couple years. The spikes we see in Apple's market share is always a bad sign. Fast to go up, fast to come down. With iPhone G4 coming up (can we not use 4G anymore? It just gives people the wrong message that it's a 4G capable phone), Apple will show a little more growth, mostly from overseas. The US market is as saturated as it will get for the iPhone.
As of this time, Apple is still growing but it simply isn't growing as fast as the overall market has grown. You could say the market is growing faster than Apple can now keep pace with. The biggest surprises are HTC, Nokia, RIM, Google, who have managed to get respectable marketshare growth to keep up with and exceed the growth of the market itself.
We'll see if the iphone G4 can help it match the general market growth but at this point in time, it's still growing, but modest enough to be considered "hitting a plateu".
With the amount of countries that iPhone has launched in, it should do better than it is atm. Android, as far as I know, is limited in only several larger markets and certainly is of lower profile than the iPhone is. Which is one of the reasons this news caught me off-guard.
Too early to tell, but it looks like Apple is going to dig itself into a corner again like the PC OS wars. They'll continue to make tons of money but their command of the market is going to be very modest if they continue at the rate they are going.
Looks like Symbian, Android and RIM are goinig to be the big 3 in the near future, with Symbian and Android being the more "open" platforms. Good news indeed for the rest of us who would rather not pay a corporation to look over our shoulders with a big stick in its hand.
@ounkeo
Hmmm...
You said:- "Good news indeed for the rest of us who would rather not pay a corporation to look over our shoulders with a big stick in its hand."
So you'd rather advertisers pay a corporation that looks over your shoulder at everything you do on the web for information that they gather on your habits, so that they may target you with ads.
Well each to their own I suppose, everything has it's price especially the "free" beads and baubles that Google dangles enticingly.
@hill60 Isn't apple going to do something similar with iAd?
I just realized sumthing... iAd on an ipAd.... makes so much sense now... :)
If Apple was on other networks their market share would go way up. In Canada we have iPhone's on 5 carriers, and I rarely see android phones.
@maattp
Of course, no one would use Android if they had a choice..ha clunkyyyy... inability to upgrade your OS... :( so sad
@Wesscoast I find your statement about upgrading the OS sad. Its not true.
@craigjc
Ok, sorry, cuz... Josh Topolsky thinks its true. My bad. I guess Josh is a liar and total Apple shill?
Ahahahaha!
Steve must be crying his eyes out right now.
S~CK IT!
I hate google enough said
I always think its funny, the google and apple wars. Pick your poison: One company will store and access all your data for advertising, the other makes you pay extra to play by the rules. I prefer my privacy, so I'll take the limits Apple sets, although I never seem to run into them.
1.5 , 1.6, 2.0, 2.1.......
Why do people even care about this so much? Buy whichever phone you like best and just enjoy it, whether the OS is in first or last place.
Geez.
... and wha..what about Windows Mobile?
Android passes Apple when the iPhone reaches close to a year old? Hahahahaha thanks to the ipad's 1 million+ units sold iPhone OS is still raping Android. iPhone OS will always have a larger base as long as Apple refreshes all of their portable units. Fanboys are stupid, when they ignore facts.
@Cold Dead Fingers
You ignored the fact that the iPhone came out three years ago:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPhone
@mr switzerland Yes, but no one's buying the OG iPhone, huh???? Moron.
Many interesting posts here. The only point I just can't get is why iPhone people try to justify the 1 to many argument.
I mean, you justify things when you have the responsibility. But in this case it is not your decision how each company plays its own cards. Apple decides to close their systems and the result is that they are overrun by other companies. Happened the same on PC different hardware with the same OS. If Apple wants to change that then they should just open the OS to other hardware manufacturers. Of course that will never happen.
In my point of view each phone has now the basic power of a small computer. I guess we are not that far where your phone becomes your always-on CPU. Plug it into a base station at home and you get a large screen and keyboard to work, send mails or anything, then unplug and take it to your office and keep working there or take it to your meeting room and project your PowerPoint presentation, then in your way back home you can just continue doing things. And as it is an always-on device you can keep downloads running to your favorite torrent site.
Oh well... so much for dreaming...
Luck!
P.S. I don't know you but my finger is sore of downranking Jack. I still can't find a worthy argument on any of his posts.
@hill60
read the title... is the ipod touch a smartphone?
Why is this a big deal? How many phones currently run the Apple OS? 3 versions of the same phone on one network? How many Andriod handsets are out there (multiple devices across multiple carriers)? If Android wasn't in front of apple OS, I think THAT would be a much bigger deal than this 'news'.
@Axtell
Its a big deal because a survey came out that may or may not give Apple Haters a reason to get into some serious online buttsecks.
Lots of talk about Android, where do you want to see it market wise? I can understand the dislike for apple. Google scares me, seems like any market they enter they start to take over. The comments about skynet as much as a joke as it is, it makes you think.
One billion people in china says : "Who cares.."
Sent from Nokia 3110
Congratulations to Google. I'm personally not convinced by the Android platform (it seems too fragmented to me) but it looks like many people are happy with it and that's what is important.
@hill60 um the screen is amazing actually , but im coming from one of the most dull screens you can buy (the iPhail) im sure HTC has produced a crisper screen but i havent seen one better than mine in person. What phone do you have thats better and if its an iPhail dont bother i owned one and know that screen is shit
Android FTW...if they could make an interface as seamless as iPhone OS, organizers as productive as Symbian^1, and a qwerty-based candybar as sleek as Blackberry
Android runs on more devices, period. If you look at it the other way, apple has nearly equaled Android success with a SINGLE phone device.
Android is and always will be superior. It has been shown. XD
I think the stats is complete bogus. Android is no where near their claims.
If this claim was true, I would be seeing many Android users.
Take the typical Subway train in NYC, you see tons of Blackberry users and then iPhone users. I've spotted only 1-2 Android users at most.
I bet, this is using false data like amount shipped vs actual activated users.
I'm certainly not disputing Blackberry is still king, they are everywhere but Android higher than iPhone!? GTFO I have yet to see one girl using one.
@vision33r "I have yet to see one girl using one." Haven't u seen the Droid commercials... Droid 'does' the iPhone. not the other way around... if u know what i mean.. :)
And so it begins. *muahahahahahahahahaha*
While all this discussion is Google and Apple.. very few seem to talk about the underdog.. MSFT. As an iphone 4.0 beta user I have to say I am kind of bored with my iphone.. i still own it because "under-contract" and the competition has only started to make an impression on what apple accomplished 4 yrs ago.. Call me loco but am still bullish on windows 7 series.. I work for a software company that has already embraced android for enterprise application development for android powered device. Being MS gold partners we primarily specialize in MS gamut of stuff and the winmo 7 series SDK is a lot easier to work with for existing Microsoft programmers.. I would personally switch once 7 series is officially launched.. MSFT failed with Zune but they would be someone to watch for in the smartphone market.. I just hope the 7 series comes in various flavors and there is an enterprise version that would seamlessly integrate with our existing infrastructure emails, sharepoint for docs, outlook calender, microsoft dynamics etc ..
Once again Apple innovates (and there's no denying that their focus on UI was a cut above the rest in 2007) and then passes the torch onto somebody else. It looks like a re-run of the PC wars.
What did in Apple then? Not licensing their software. What's doing in Apple now? Not being open to more networks.
Apple just doesn't get it. Part of the whole "user experience" thing they go on and on about is being able to use the network I want. That's the network that I determine has the best services for the best price for me, the user. Despite what Apple thinks, at the end of the day, the iPhone is a phone, and the network I am using is the most defining part of the "user experience". Cripple my choice there and you are crippling my user experience.
There are other annoyances. For example, you shouldn't need to jailbreak your iPhone just to be able to customize your wallpaper. But those kinds of complaints are probably minor annoyances for the average person. The network thing though? Can't compromise on that.
As long as they stick to AT&T in the US, their fortunes will be tied to AT&T.
@kEiThZ
Good point. WP7 seems to combine both, licensing und controlled user experience, I'm looking forward to seeing how it performs in the market. Microsoft seems to have learned its lesson.
Awesome Go android!!!!!!!!!!!!
but try to get #1
Common sense dictates that one must seriously doubt the extrapolation accuracy of the study. The iPhone uptake has been absolutely massive over the past 3 years. In terms of the future, one of the main reasons iPhone doesn't have even more marketshare is due to it's lack of availability on Verizon. Once (if) that changes, my bet (with my Apple stock holdings putting my money where my mouth is) is that the majority of people who walk into a Verizon store looking for a smartphone will buy an iPhone, despite there being perhaps a dozen Android/WinMo7 devices littered all over the walls...
This is only one quarter, iPhone (being one phone, one manufacture) has 24/5% of the marketshare in the U.S
The main fact that there are so many people on here heralding this news as the second coming of Jesus, just goes to prove that Apple ARE doing somethihng right.
Whether you like it or not, Apple shook the whole market up. It drove competition, it inspired a whole new raft of programmers into a refreshing platform, it's made millionaires and quite simply it's done something I have not seen in the mobile market.
Whilst this is good news for Google, this doesn't mean much for us in all reality. We have to remember that Google are still a corporation. When they become number 1 they'll get lazy until another up and comer will take the fight to Google.
It's all swings and round abouts, the consumer is normally not the first thought, the first though is money, the consumer is just the bridge to getting the money.
Do we think Google are getting away with just offering free operating systems to these mobile phone manufactuers?
Or maybe you don't know Google's business model. Maybe you should look deeper down the rabbit hole
To quote something similar, some of these come to mind:
"Ask not what Android can do for you... Ask what you can do for Android!"
"We choose to use Android, not because it is easy... but because it is hawrd!"