Canalys: Android takes Q2 smartphone market share lead in US with 886 percent year-over-year growth
By Paul Miller 
posted August 2nd 2010 10:44AM
posted August 2nd 2010 10:44AM
We knew Android phones were selling like gangbusters -- Google has been none too shy in telling us as much -- but numbers were slightly less clear in a larger context. Well, if a new report by Canalys is to be believed, those numbers are just fine in a larger context. Canalys claims that in Q2 Android was up a whopping 886 percent over last year's sales during this time period (remember, the original Droid didn't come out until November), and those wild sales put it at 34 percent of the US market, compared to RIM's 32 percent and Apple's 21.7 share. Of course, RIM has a big launch on the way, and we're not sure how much of the iPhone 4's heady run this report captures, so things could naturally look different for Q3. Also, it's worth noting that the breakdown of phones actually in use is of course dramatically different. Still, nobody is doing that bad: the smartphone market is up 64 percent year-over-year, and Apple and RIM grew 61 percent and 41 percent, respectively. Oh, and remember Nokia? Yeah, they're still beating the world with a 38 percent market share and 41 percent growth. Check out the press release after the break for all the percentages your heart could ever desire. Android smart phone shipments grow 886% year-on-year in Q2 2010
- Nokia retains smart phone leadership position, but competitors close the gap
Palo Alto, Singapore and Reading (UK) – Monday, 2 August 2010
Nokia retained a substantial lead in the worldwide smart phone market in Q2 2010, achieving a 38% market share. The vendor shipped a record 23.8 million smart phones during the quarter, representing growth of 41% on a year ago, as it focused on delivering affordable smart phone offerings to the market, such as its popular 5230 touch-screen handset, based on the Symbian operating system (OS). But Nokia's market dominance is not as unassailable as it once was, with its performance outpaced by growth in the smart phone market as a whole.
The smart phone market grew by 64% annually worldwide in Q2 2010. At the same time, shipments of RIM's BlackBerry smart phones grew by 41%. Helped by the continued strong performances of devices such as the Curve 8520, it was once again the second placed vendor with an 18% market share, while also retaining its leadership position in North and Latin America. Despite a period of turbulent PR, initial shipments of the iPhone 4 were predictably strong and contributed to Apple's 61% growth and worldwide market share of 13% for the quarter. But analysis of Canalys' detailed, globally consistent data shows it is the collective growth of Android device shipments across a range of handset vendors' portfolios that is most remarkable. With key products from HTC, Motorola, Samsung, Sony Ericsson and LG, among others, shipments of smart phones running the Google-backed Android operating system grew an impressive 886% in Q2 2010.
'The latest release of our detailed and complete country-level smart phone shipment data for Q2 2010 clearly reveals the impressive momentum Android is gaining in markets around the world,' said Canalys VP and Principal Analyst, Chris Jones, commenting on the publication. 'In the United States, for example, we have seen the largest carrier, Verizon Wireless, heavily promoting high-profile Android devices, such as the Droid by Motorola and the Droid Incredible by HTC. These products have been well received by the market, with consumers eager to download and engage with mobile applications and services, such as Internet browsing, social networking, games and navigation.' The United States smart phone market grew 41% year on year. It is the largest smart phone market in the world by a significant margin, with 14.7 million units accounting for 23% of global shipments in Q2 2010. Android devices collectively represented a 34% share of the US market in the quarter, and with growth of 851% Android became the largest smart phone platform in the country.
US and China smart phone market
'The story in the Asia Pacific region is similarly optimistic around Android,' noted Senior Analyst, TY Lau. 'Android devices are gaining good traction in markets such as mainland China and South Korea, with growing numbers of consumers wanting more sophisticated smart phones.' China was the world's second largest smart phone market in Q2 2010 for the sixth consecutive quarter, with shipments of 6.9 million units representing 11% of the worldwide total. Android devices combined reached almost 475,000 units in Q2 2010 from no presence in the country a year ago. It is also important to note that China Mobile is committed to developing its own platform, OMS, based on Android, and an additional 174,000 smart phones shipped in the quarter running OMS. 'Given Google's substantial involvement in the Open Handset Alliance (OHA), that its relationship with the Chinese authorities appears to have improved recently, and that its operating licence has been renewed, will help reduce concerns that tensions could have an impact on the potential for the OHA-based Android and OMS platforms in the country, particularly among vendors that have committed resources to producing Android devices for the Chinese market,' added Lau. 'Nokia's Symbian devices continue to dominate the market, but other vendors are clearly making good headway with Android in China. Motorola and Samsung, as well as local vendors, such as Dopod, Lenovo and Huawei, are achieving promising volumes on the platform, and Android devices held a 7% share in China this quarter.' Despite a close relationship with its strategic partner Dopod, HTC, the world's leading Android device vendor, announced last week that it is entering the Chinese market with its own-branded smart phones. With a population of 1.3 billion, China represents a market with enormous growth potential and Canalys expects Android to be among the platforms that will drive growth in the coming quarters and years.
Growth in the worldwide smart phone market reflects the increasing importance of smart phones in device vendors' and operators' handset portfolios, as growing numbers of consumers appear eager to engage with mobile applications and connected services. 'Expect to see smart phones accounting for a growing proportion of the wider mobile phone market as they become increasingly affordable to more customers,' said Canalys Senior Analyst, Pete Cunningham. 'By 2013, smart phones will grow to represent over 27% of shipments worldwide, with the proportion in some developed markets in Western Europe surpassing 60% and 48% in North America.'
Canalys' annual smart phone market trends report, now in its ninth successful year, pulls together, in a concise format, qualitative analysis of key market trends, top-level market share and shipment estimates for the leading vendors, comparative analysis of vendors' performance and evaluation of their strengths and weaknesses, and forecasts for future market development. The new Canalys smart phone market trends report is now available. More details can be found at www.canalys.com/services/reports.
Canalys analysts in Asia Pacific, the Americas and EMEA are available for press interviews on topics related to mobile devices and the growing ecosystem for mobile applications and services. To arrange an interview, please send a request to press@canalys.com. Analyst biographies, with photos, are available here.
- Nokia retains smart phone leadership position, but competitors close the gap
Palo Alto, Singapore and Reading (UK) – Monday, 2 August 2010
Nokia retained a substantial lead in the worldwide smart phone market in Q2 2010, achieving a 38% market share. The vendor shipped a record 23.8 million smart phones during the quarter, representing growth of 41% on a year ago, as it focused on delivering affordable smart phone offerings to the market, such as its popular 5230 touch-screen handset, based on the Symbian operating system (OS). But Nokia's market dominance is not as unassailable as it once was, with its performance outpaced by growth in the smart phone market as a whole.
The smart phone market grew by 64% annually worldwide in Q2 2010. At the same time, shipments of RIM's BlackBerry smart phones grew by 41%. Helped by the continued strong performances of devices such as the Curve 8520, it was once again the second placed vendor with an 18% market share, while also retaining its leadership position in North and Latin America. Despite a period of turbulent PR, initial shipments of the iPhone 4 were predictably strong and contributed to Apple's 61% growth and worldwide market share of 13% for the quarter. But analysis of Canalys' detailed, globally consistent data shows it is the collective growth of Android device shipments across a range of handset vendors' portfolios that is most remarkable. With key products from HTC, Motorola, Samsung, Sony Ericsson and LG, among others, shipments of smart phones running the Google-backed Android operating system grew an impressive 886% in Q2 2010.
'The latest release of our detailed and complete country-level smart phone shipment data for Q2 2010 clearly reveals the impressive momentum Android is gaining in markets around the world,' said Canalys VP and Principal Analyst, Chris Jones, commenting on the publication. 'In the United States, for example, we have seen the largest carrier, Verizon Wireless, heavily promoting high-profile Android devices, such as the Droid by Motorola and the Droid Incredible by HTC. These products have been well received by the market, with consumers eager to download and engage with mobile applications and services, such as Internet browsing, social networking, games and navigation.' The United States smart phone market grew 41% year on year. It is the largest smart phone market in the world by a significant margin, with 14.7 million units accounting for 23% of global shipments in Q2 2010. Android devices collectively represented a 34% share of the US market in the quarter, and with growth of 851% Android became the largest smart phone platform in the country.
US and China smart phone market
'The story in the Asia Pacific region is similarly optimistic around Android,' noted Senior Analyst, TY Lau. 'Android devices are gaining good traction in markets such as mainland China and South Korea, with growing numbers of consumers wanting more sophisticated smart phones.' China was the world's second largest smart phone market in Q2 2010 for the sixth consecutive quarter, with shipments of 6.9 million units representing 11% of the worldwide total. Android devices combined reached almost 475,000 units in Q2 2010 from no presence in the country a year ago. It is also important to note that China Mobile is committed to developing its own platform, OMS, based on Android, and an additional 174,000 smart phones shipped in the quarter running OMS. 'Given Google's substantial involvement in the Open Handset Alliance (OHA), that its relationship with the Chinese authorities appears to have improved recently, and that its operating licence has been renewed, will help reduce concerns that tensions could have an impact on the potential for the OHA-based Android and OMS platforms in the country, particularly among vendors that have committed resources to producing Android devices for the Chinese market,' added Lau. 'Nokia's Symbian devices continue to dominate the market, but other vendors are clearly making good headway with Android in China. Motorola and Samsung, as well as local vendors, such as Dopod, Lenovo and Huawei, are achieving promising volumes on the platform, and Android devices held a 7% share in China this quarter.' Despite a close relationship with its strategic partner Dopod, HTC, the world's leading Android device vendor, announced last week that it is entering the Chinese market with its own-branded smart phones. With a population of 1.3 billion, China represents a market with enormous growth potential and Canalys expects Android to be among the platforms that will drive growth in the coming quarters and years.
Growth in the worldwide smart phone market reflects the increasing importance of smart phones in device vendors' and operators' handset portfolios, as growing numbers of consumers appear eager to engage with mobile applications and connected services. 'Expect to see smart phones accounting for a growing proportion of the wider mobile phone market as they become increasingly affordable to more customers,' said Canalys Senior Analyst, Pete Cunningham. 'By 2013, smart phones will grow to represent over 27% of shipments worldwide, with the proportion in some developed markets in Western Europe surpassing 60% and 48% in North America.'
Canalys' annual smart phone market trends report, now in its ninth successful year, pulls together, in a concise format, qualitative analysis of key market trends, top-level market share and shipment estimates for the leading vendors, comparative analysis of vendors' performance and evaluation of their strengths and weaknesses, and forecasts for future market development. The new Canalys smart phone market trends report is now available. More details can be found at www.canalys.com/services/reports.
Canalys analysts in Asia Pacific, the Americas and EMEA are available for press interviews on topics related to mobile devices and the growing ecosystem for mobile applications and services. To arrange an interview, please send a request to press@canalys.com. Analyst biographies, with photos, are available here.
@pspitts LMAO. You can't be serious.
It's funny to watch iPhone homers claim that all Android users do is buy the next new phone. Pot meet kettle. Wow.
@pspitts
The OS being free is a moot point.
So the OS is free to the hardware companies. So what? Apple doesn't license their OS to anyone. Do they charge themselves?
And unless you are a stockholder, how much money each company makes off their sales (hardware or software) is a moot point too.
@pspitts
I for one jumped iPhone to EVO because android is a better OS . Sure iPhone gets the credit to make a usable smart phone and it will flourish due to it s base . But the Droid OS and hardware upgrades are making iPhone obsolete.. just compare EVO or droidx to iPhone4
@Makali
Nahh man, that hi-res screen and improved camera will have them saying "iPhone shits one droid!" When in fact, they cant even really back up the point. Tell me how it "shits"...... and I'll tell you about the lack of live wallpapers (HA! their hacking and running nexus one wallpapers, ROFL), widgets, or the customations that are capable on Android, and Im talkin abt to a normal user and not a hacked/rooted/jailbroken phone. With more updates coming, it just cant be beat in its features.
Chrome to phone feature? Ability to install an app immediately upon clicking "install" from the web? How about HAVING the option to view Flash content? NOT having to use iTunes?? I could go on.... but Apple fans will come and try to dilute the point w/ irrelevant information.
Cant believe that up there said "who gives a ratsass abt marketshare". He's really one of those troll-bots portrayed in that EVO vs. iphone vid... we're not talking MINDshare, but marketshare, how many devices are out there, and he goes on talkin abt only hardware matters, smdh.
@Dellibedaboss Live wallpapers: the ability to make your phone look good while slowing it down with no real benefit.
Keep your live wallpapers. Please, for the love of god, keep them.
@pspitts
"You can't compare a free OS to a paid one."
Yes you can. Should I prove this to you?
@Awall1987
You do realize that Live wallpapers are on the absolute last list of things to be rendered by the phone right? That is why they lag to high hell when you try to run 3 apps at once because the OS is lagging the background rather than your App.
I would assume you don't own an Android phone, or you would know this. I personally don't use them due to ADD and just staring at Mario going across the screen as opposed to doing what I should be doing with my phone at that time!
@pspitts Yea, thats what im thinking. If other manufacturers could use iOS in their devices, iOS would be winning in every poll. Apple isnt going to do that obviously.
@mjkxxl I don't have an Android phone, but as a small note on multitasking: even small processes eventually have an impact on system performance; this is true even on desktop systems with a process dialled way down to have the lowest priority. It takes up some small amount of memory, requires a context switch to execute, etc. I'm sure that it's largely imperceptible to the human at the using end, but there's still some amount of slow-down.
@Blaque14K
But are they outselling iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad?
I mean, if you're going to count all devices that are running Android OS, shouldn't you also count all devices that are running iOS?
@Ironworker808
Hold your horses bucko, this is about PHONE OSes. Now, there will probably never be an android media device (sans phone capable), but Droid tablets are dropping later this year. Since iPad only launched early this year, we should have some respectable numbers to compare come late 2011/early 2012.
Once again, its a locked-down iOS vs.Open-Source Android on tablets. Now, keep in mind that many of these people will be looking for a complete web experience, and w/ lack of Flash (be honest, who all plays those online flash games - or even those annoying, damned interactive ads! [relax, you can set it for on-demand, or OFF even :) ] lol), I think that will hurt iPad sales a little going forward. They are the ONLY tablets now, so people buying them can feel like they have something "exclusive" -- like these fools thinking iPhones are "premium" devices and cost more than an EVO, Droid, or Galaxy S O_o.
BUT.... competition is coming. Apple will NEVER be knocked off their high horse, but staying at #1...in everything except mac sales... forever, just aint hat'nin chief! They will stay strong in iPhone and iPad sales, but those numbers will be coming down once people wake up and notice some better options on the table.
OH and abt the comment above abt people not wanting to leave Apple's ecosystem because of the accessories they bought -- one word: eBAY! Sell that off, and buy another accessory for the new device for the cheap... maybe.
@Ironworker808
were talking about phones not mp3 players so I think it is a very valid comparison
I hate android but thats awesome! They are doing quite well for themselves! Props to google!
@KompressorV12
This article is talking about phones, yes. But, in the long run, it really isn't about phones. It's about platforms.
You think it's a fair comparison to pit one device running iOS to the 55-60 or so devices running Android? It has nothing to do with what the device's main function is. It's about getting the platform into as many peoples hands as possible.
This isn't just about mobile phones. This article, yes. But the big picture, no. The big picture is about the platform. Android is making great strides in their marketshare, but still have quite a ways to go to catch up to Apples 100 million iOS devices that are out in the wild.
(That figure comes from Steve Jobs' WWDC keynote. I do realize that not all of those devices are active, as most of the first gen and 3G iPhones have probably been retired. Same with the first two gen iPod Touches. But 100 million devices sold is impressive nonetheless.)
But, opinions vary.
@Dellibedaboss
You don't think that just because iOS runs on devices that are not phones that they are not the same OS?
OK.
Opinions vary.
886% !?
I dont think that Android can take over Iphone
The strong growth of Android is mainly due to the support of too many manufacturers and that Android is still rather new. However, as there are too many android phones out there, the difference between each of them hardly exists. I dont think the sales will grow like that in long term
The only weapon Android enjoys is the possibility of supporting flash website, and that's all. I dont find Android OS innovative at all
meh... iphone will still win
Android is only doing good lately because its the only open and free smartphone os that is good. iOS is tied to the iphone obviously, I'm sure if other manufacturers could use it in their device they would and if that was true, iPhone would be in the lead by landslide. Also, the iphone is still the most desired phone out there, the key reason for people not wanting to get one is AT&T.
@RealityMonster
Please provide a link that shows Apple counts iPads as part of their laptop numbers.
Thanks.
Androids Google-developed cloud to device API`s continue to AMAZE me !
...aaannndddd the i-Tards crawl out of the wood work full of denial.
Hopefully Microsoft can speed up the development of WP7 to get some really great stuff in it, and hopefully get a lot of good phones too.