NPD: Android is now top-selling OS in American smartphones
By Vlad Savov 
posted August 4th 2010 10:46AM
posted August 4th 2010 10:46AM
Disclaimer: NPD's Ross Rubin is a contributor to Engadget.
The NPD Group: Motorola, HTC drive Android to Smartphone OS lead in the U.S.
Android now installed in one of every three smartphones sold at retail. BlackBerry OS share drops 9 points to 28 percent.
PORT WASHINGTON, NEW YORK, August 4, 2010 - Riding the wave of new handset introductions and wide carrier distribution in the second quarter (Q2), the Android smartphone operating system (OS) continued its upward climb in the U.S. consumer mobile phone market, according to The NPD Group, a leading market research company. For the first time since the fourth quarter (Q4) of 2007, RIM fell to second position, as Android took the lead among operating systems in handsets sold to U.S. consumers. NPD's latest wireless market research reveals that Android accounted for 33 percent of all smartphones purchased in Q2, ahead of RIM (28 percent) and Apple (22 percent).
"For the second consecutive quarter, Android handsets have shown strong but slowing sell-through market share gains among U.S. consumers," said Ross Rubin, executive director of industry analysis for NPD. "While the Google-developed OS took market share from RIM, Apple's iOS saw a small gain this quarter on the strength of the iPhone 4 launch."
Based on U.S. consumer purchases of mobile phones in Q2, the top 5 Android smartphones were as follows:
Motorola Droid
HTC Droid Incredible
HTC EVO 4G
HTC Hero
HTC Droid Eris
"Blackberry 6 will soon offer features that have been popular in recently launched Android handsets, such as support for capacitive touchscreens and a WebKit-based browser. However, the Blackberry Torch lacks the large screen allure that has characterized the best selling Android devices at its price point, including the Droid Incredible and EVO 4G," Rubin said.
Model selection and promotions continue to play a role in the race for carrier dominance. According to NPD's Mobile Phone Track, Verizon Wireless has maintained its lead among top carriers for the last three quarters comprising a third (33 percent) of the units sold in the U.S. mobile phone market in Q2, followed by AT&T (25 percent), Sprint (12 percent), and T-Mobile (11 percent). In Q2 Verizon Wireless continued their buy-one-get-one (BOGO) offers on all smartphones, including both RIM and Android models.
In spite of an overall decline in the number of mobile phones purchased year over year, the ongoing popularity of both messaging phones and smartphones, which are generally more costly than standard feature phones, resulted in slightly higher prices for all mobile phones in Q2. The average selling price for all mobile phones reached $90, which is a 3 percent increase since Q2 last year. Smartphone unit prices, by comparison, averaged $143 in Q2 2010, which is a 9 percent decrease over the previous year.
Data Note: The information in this press release is from Mobile Phone Track – NPD's consumer tracking of U.S. consumers, aged 18 and older, who reported purchasing a mobile phone. NPD does not track corporate/enterprise mobile phone purchases.
@Geshpenst
Technology dictates change. I think thats far better for consumers than releasing one phone, making minor changes to it, then calling it "next generation". As the needs of consumers change, coupled with advancements in technology, out with the old, in with the new. This competition is really helping iphone users.
I hate no issues with Apple, but eventually there is going to come a point where even their users are going to realize that there are only small innovations being made to their product and want more. Unfortunately, Steve Jobs moves at his own pace, partly because there is no real competition in what he does. I think a better comparison for Engadget would be to find out the number of quarterly NEW activations for Android compared to Apple. Then we can see if any of these arguments hold water.
I think engadget knew when writing this that hate speech was about to come. Fact is Android is gaining quickly. Anyone who argues is wrong. Deal with it. If you're happy with your iphone good for you. No need to worry about apple losing share that doesn't change the fact that you like your phone. I see far more people from the apple side being ignorant than ms fanboys in the gaming world... Jesus. Facts are facts doesn't mean you have to go onto a comment thread and bash things. You like your phone fine a company losing market share doesn't change your phone so why care? I doubt any of you own actual stock in apple anyways. So it doesn't affect you and if it does that is the definition of fanboy. Thus all unbiasedness goes straight out the window. I love my droid x I think google's competitive nature will change the industry and force companies like Microsoft and Apple to rethink things. So congrats on a better future for us the consumers...
So is iphone 5 the "android killer"
Talk about and Underdog huh !
crapdroid app suck. cant even put out a decent facebook app for crying out loud. how many "buy one get one free phones" do u see apple giving out? NONE!!!! and whats all this BS about suckdroid being so open? if thats the case then why do so many people "root" android phones? until u can name one faildroid phone that has sold more than the iphone STFU
@charlesb33
I think you should work on spelling things correctly before you make ridiculous arguments.
1) Android is open becuase all carriers/devs can use it
2) The 'buy one get one' is to get people in the store to try it out
3) Android is made FOR the consumer. iPhone is Apple's biggest cash cow.
@zinc55 look jack face i know how to "Spell" correctly. im sorry that i didnt correct all of my "spelling" and " english grammar" before i made this post to a bunch of people that i dont give a crap about but, i have something thats called a life. maybe you should try getting laid like a am in the next hour or so and then you wouldnt care either. now, dont try to say that the "buy one get one free" is just to get people in the store to try it out. thats total bs. the fact remains, apple has never given out any free phones and doesnt need to. i wonder how many of the free phones were counted in this number? i guess we will never know will we? im done with my rant as i have better things to do with my life
@charlesb33
"i made this post to a bunch of people that i dont give a crap about"
And that fact shines through in the half-arsed attempt at a logical argument you've made mate.
@charlesb33
Neither does BOSE have promotions on their products. But there's a reason why you'll hear BOSE = Better of with something else.
Android has some shortcomings. Its not as polished as the Apple UI. BUT, inspite of that, you can sense a MASSIVE reaction from the other camp.of non-iPhone lovers. This is because we do not like to be dictated to, as to how the phone should operate. iTunes should be optional. I'm ok if Apple says - if you use software outside of iTunes and it bricks your phone, your warranty will be void. This is fine by me. Or supports Flash, but provides a warning that warns you that you could potentially compromise your phone. Or, that it may be sluggish. Go ahead. Put a note in the users manual that says "Battery life may be affected by extensive use of Flash". When you browse the internet. It does NOT DECIDE FOR YOU what is appropriate or not. When you buy a car, they tell you what its mpg rating is. How you drive it to get close to that mpg is left up to you. They do not neuter or electronically control the car to give you that mpg, while compromising the rest of that experience.
Perception makes all the difference.
@Bervick couldn't of said it better myself... BRAVO!!!..
Steve Jobbs is HITLER!!!
Control Freak
Android shows a nice growing pace.
In February Google stated that 60,000 Androids were activated each day (+- 21 million a year).
In mid may 100,000 (+- 37 million a year),
late June 160,000 (+- 58 million a year) and now
early august 200,000 (+-73 million a year)
If they continue this growing pace they will be selling more than 600,000 a day (+- 220 million/year)in February 2011
For all the people saying that iphone is held back because it is on one carrier - the iphone has been out for how many years now? If people really wanted an iphone they would have switched over to AT&T by now, once their contracts were up.
And as others have mentioned, the iphone is on multiple carriers in other markets, yet Android is still experiencing exponential growth.
@mobo83
Actually they are selling iPhones as fast as they can make them...even if Verizon had an iPhone, it would just frustrate the hell out of everybody......
the 200,000 per day number sounds dubious, partly because its so much faster than Apple can even make their phones (which are sold out), and... I don't really see Android that much...I just don't..
This is in no way a surprise. Apple sells 1 (defective) device and the OS frankly just looks tired. Android spoils you for choice, that's always WIN in my book.
@HighestRanked1 All the android fangirls wont be celebrating (Which is pretty stupid) when the iphone goes to another carrier and wipes away all their sales.
FU CRapple.
i'm glad this has finally happened. us apple users are quite happy sitting quietly in the background creating greatness for everyone else to knock off. like reinventing the way we communicate. now the androids can have the spotlight. it's hot in in there... all you business users and pc gamers can have your spotlights, androids, windows and blackberries.
I LUV IT!!!!!!
this was inevitable! now, let's see some international numbers! (i'm guessing they would tell an entirely different story)
I am an iPhone user since the first one. I love my 3GS and I think it's a great phone. I am currently waiting to get my iPhone 4 unlocked from Apple ( yes, I'm from Canada ).
First, I think that Android is a freaking good OS. I tried a week a go the HTC Magic and the X10 and both are really nice devices and both worked well with thier own widgets and apps.
Secondly, I am happy that Google's OS is successfull with Android. I just hope that these kind of news are going to send a message to the other players in this game ( Apple, Microsoft, Nokia, HP/Palm, RIM ) and tells them that they have to work hard to strike back on this.
Finally, I think that competition brings innovation.
The competition is great for the consumer and Apple is a very innovative company but in my opinion iOS just does compare to Android + HTC sense
Who cares. I'm looking forward to the day when all mobile apps will be HTML5 mobile web apps and it won't matter what OS you are running. You'll choose a phone based on display quality, signal reception, UI responsiveness, keyboard, audio quality, camera quality, battery life, and hardware aesthetics. Really, when any app you want can be downloaded as a web app running in Webkit, who will give a crap about what OS it will be running?
Competition is good. Can you imagine what the iPhone 5 and the Droid 3 will look like? I can't wait.