Gartner and IDC agree: the Android invasion's accelerating around the world
By Vlad Savov 
posted August 12th 2010 7:09AM
posted August 12th 2010 7:09AM
Overall, smartphone sales were up by 50 percent year-on-year, according to both Gartner and IDC, while Gartner adds that mobile devices as a whole grew at a tamer 13.3 percent pace. In terms of phone manufacturers' global share, Nokia and Samsung have held on to their top positions, LG, Sony Ericsson and Motorola have experienced some uncomfortable shrinkage, and HTC, RIM and Apple have capitalized to expand their portions. Looking over to IDC's smartphone share data shows, again, that all smartphone makers are growing remarkably well, but it does highlight HTC (129 percent) and Samsung (173 percent) as really improving their presence in the sector. The reason? Android, Android, Android.
@jj1ggz914 i know im increasing that percentage when i get my epic next month and leaving blackberry skynet is upon us
What I find interesting is how well both Nokia and Symbian are keeping their marketshare. In sold units Symbian actually grew 25 percent.
Its good to keep in mind that Nokia has both its mid range and high range under a heavy transition period with Sym3 and MeeGo finally reaching deployment soon.
I hope they will be successful. Especially drooling after MeeGo.
HTC and Samsung make good phones (better than most), that is why they are improving. Having Android OS does help!
Wait, I though Android was doing better in the US because the iPhone was exclusive to AT&T and that any sane person would get the iPhone if it was available on other carriers. Hmmmm... something smells fishy here. I KNOW! THEY COOKED THE NUMBERS!!
@DaveBrubeck
Android platform x smartphone manufacturers x # of carriers = more sales!
It'd be embarrasing if Apple sold more iPhones than Android Phones. Imagine if OSX sold more than Windows, c'est IMPOSSIBLE!
All Android needs is a true halo device to rival the industrial design of Apple (minus the antenna issues). Comparing the fit and finish of my Evo and my wife's iPhone 4, apple gets the nod. The Nexus One was a good 1st step...
...now release that Nexus Two halo device Google!
@MiddleWay
The HTC Legend is a fantastic device and its design beats any iPhone so far. Sure, it's not a "superphone" a la EVO et al but it's gorgeous.
@DaveBrubeck
Agreed that the Legend looks very promising in design! But I have been let down before just on pictures, and would rather base my opinion after handling it (by the way is there a target date on the Legend?).
For one I thought the iPhone 4 wasn't anything great to look based on the leak...but when my wife got it and I used it for the first time, my EVO got just a bit jealous. For a bit.
@MiddleWay
Dude, they've copied Apple so much in the last 3 years, HTC's getting sued for patent infringement... and you want them to go harder? Jeeeez....
@Wesscoast
Well Apple didn't sue Motorola now did they? Or Samsung? Or SE? These handset makers are all capable of producing a beautifully crafted Android phone. So you lose.
Accounted for by it slowly becoming the OS of choice for millions of chinese knock off/ poor quality slates and phones
@MVMNT Hit the nail on the head. Makes you wonder how much money Google's actually making on it.
@Geshpenst
How they have always been making money...ads.
@Geshpenst
Um... none?
Who can resist the cute green robot he can multi task, run flash, support all latest hardware , tons of apps , one of the best development api , ease of creating and testing apps
@Makali
dont forget your phone can turn into a car-oriented computer with the car dock, or a multimedia oriented device with a dock
I cant believe ppl even still look at iphones.. i mean before android 2.0 it made sense, but now your an idiot if you bypass android
This is what's driving Android growth: On Amazon you can get two T-Mo Vibrants for the price of one 16GB iPhone 4. You can get AT&T's Captivate for $50. These are Galaxy S phones !
I'm an Apple Fanboy, but at these prices, I'm thinking of switching.
@leboTV Why haven't you already?
Can someone explain the Android/Linux split, since Android is Linux? Are they grouping other Linux distributions vs. Android (WebOS, Maemo, Meego)?
@macemoneta
i guess they group the real linux os like maemo, and meego when it comes out.
@macemoneta
Android uses a Linux kernel which means it is Linux. It is not a Linux distribution. Maemo and especially MeeGo are distrubutions like Ubuntu, Fedora, etc.. SUSE is making SUSE MeeGo.
@theflew
Android has Linux. MeeGo is a GNU/Linux. :)
begun, the clone wars have.
i see that chart shows symbian is numbero uno. but i like seen 1 nokia phone ever with symbian on it. how can that be number one if no one really has it.
Being a recent android user (joined in since 4th of July via Galaxy S) I'm so glad that I haven't picked the wrong OS. With this continued rapid growth great momentum would be gained when more users realize this will be the OS of the future, for at least two decades unless something big happens >_> Although more Android users wanted to switch to iPhone than that of iPhone users who want to switch to Android, we're definitely pulling more users from Blackberry than the IOS is.
Market share is good, but I fear that it is coming from voracious undercutting manufacturers with non consistent devices. I'd like to see a statistic considering a baseline of 'quality' Android devices and to see what the sales look like for that group. I still think growth is phenomenal but I'm not willing to consider some of these 'garbage' Android devices which aren't usable in the same frame as say a Galaxy S or even a Nexus One. Just a thought. Love my Galaxy S btw.
Android runs on Linux - why aren't Android's numbers added to Linux???
@uberDoward The Linux devices you see are the tiny embedded Linux devices and OSes and probably a very small amount of larger kernel installable (probably not related to mobile phones).
@uberDoward
Android OS using stripped / modified version of Linux kernel to be running on mobile devices such as phone, tablet, netbook etc. Different devices need different functions, thus there's a difference between pc and mobile linux, but they all use linux kernel for sure.
Don't get confused with UI or the GUI, it's just a skin / shell to make it user friendly (and fun). No one dare to delete a file by typing '$ rm filename". just kidding... ;-))
IMO Android is a very promising mobile OS and I like it, and Meego also has it's future in market if it can adapt most of linux originality in a lightweight and mobile fashion. After all, we expect a good deal for our money, right?
Wow sometimes i scare myself how right i am about this. I CALLED IT!!
@Seven2k
Very few so called experts even predicted this a year ago. You should pat your self in the back. I bet big money on this strategy and will hopefully have a huge pay day soon.
@jcom
Funny cause i got so much shit for calling it here. The iphone fannies said this wont happen. But they do not know Apples inner workings. iOS is done as far as UI they are going to keep it for awhile and spread it across all machines and devices. Thats steves dream and what he think counts.
@Seven2k I bet you did. I wasn't reading here much when Android dropped but I certainly let it be known that this would happen anywhere I could from the day I first saw the video from Google explaining what Android would be in 2007 I think it was. This day coming was clear. But the iFools continued to ignore the facts and swear Android wasn't going anywhere. Now its just excuse after excuse and FUD on top of FUD. And their favorite piece of FUD known as "fragmentation" is about to be turned around on them.
http://www.androidpolice.com/2010/08/12/chitika-mobile-war-reveals-lots-of-goodies-android-device-market-cap-ios-fragmentation-and-more/
I don't want to hear anything else about fragmentation out of any iFool.
@Seven2k
I remember those days clearly. Now the tune has changed to how can this not happen when its one phone against 200 phones. One carrier against 4. They still got their excuses. Not every one has the insight. unfortunately majority of people are sheeps in lots of ways.
@jcom Isn't Android's explosive growth mainly attributable to the fact that it's found on very cheap phones? iOS isn't found on any phone below $100. There are 3 on Verizon right now that are.
@cubanoconengadget
What's your definition of cheap phones. Droid X and Droid incredible are $199 same as Iphone 4 and they have been sold out forever. Droid 2 is selling $150 to $200. Evo 4G is selling for over $200 and its been continuously sold out. Samsung Galaxy S for the most part has been selling for $79-200. So you need to come up with better reason than they are selling because they are cheap. Some people just cant understand they are great phones and people like them just as much as iphone fanboi's like their phones.
@cubanoconengadget
oh sorry. I guess i need to clarify. I said that Google will rise up because its not tied down to one thing. Apple is the maker of the phone and software and Att is the carrier. This is what steve likes it, no confusion for the customer. Google made the os and sold it to whoever wanted to use it. What they did do is make a fantasy phone called the Nexus 1, kind of the benchmark for Android phones. They displayed the features it could do, so everyone followed. now companies like Samsung, HTC and so on put their touches on it. I like this because if you are an HTC fan and like their phones you dont have to switch provider and manufacturer to stick with Android. You stay loyal to the maker...Which is awesome.
To compare Apple to any device with Google OS in it is nuts. Not one device/hardware is in range of out selling the iPhone. Android gambits are compare 1 company to most of the industry. Android is the only competitor to iOS because Windows, BlackBerry,and palm is stumbling. Only Blackberry who design and make their own hardware / software can only be compared to Apple. Plus I do remember Verizon sell Android device 2 of 1 or buy 1 and get 3 free family plan. Of clues they will have more devices combine in the market than Apple if most of the phone were giveaways.
@soloist
I dont get why ppl keep bringing up buy one get one as it is an unfair comparison.. first off it is buy one smartphone get any smartphone free meaning they arent required to get an android phone, second off the second user has to pay for the service of the phone, how are they any different than somene who bought their phone outright...
also Im sick of ppl saying oh iphone is one phone android is multiple so it isnt a fair comparison... that is the genius of android.. let google do what they are best at, software, and leave phone manufactures to do what they are best at, making phones.. put them togethr and you have a bulletproof phone
I think the reason MeeGo might be successful is not because of anything Nokia is going to do with it. I think MeeGo's real raison 'd etre is Intel. Intel doesn't like that Arm rules the phone market, and wants to have a total control in that market as it does in computers. It wouldn't surprise me if Nokia puts out phones with Intel chips in them. We'll see.
fragmentation only occured because android was so young and was continually adding features. The groundwork major features are now all here in android 2.2 along with the fact that android 2.2 can update system pieces individually bypassing carriers will end fragmentation... also android updates will occur once every year starting with android 3.0 and these updates will be mainly cosmetic
any relevant android phone (excluding the streak which pisses me off) is up to android 2.1 so the only ppl bringing up this issue are the people trying to criticize android on anything they can.. I had an original droid now an X so i've never been below 2.0 but I can say fragmentation has ever affected me at all... I'm missing out on 2.2 features, but in the app world I have been able to download anything I want successfully
dont kno what hes talking about dont make me laugh ios is so childish they make it seem like ppl who own the iphone are idiots not saying an easy to use os is bad but seriously i know android isnt that easy it might be at 3.0 but ios is like for ppl of an iq 90 or less no offence my gf owns an ipod touch its not a bad device iphone isnt a bad device but ios is just stupid when iphone first came out it was a serious work of art cuz there wasnt anything that good but android has over run it and will keep on growing and not cuz of buy 1 get one free or cuz there cheaper but cuz theres more of them and more carriers behind android if ios was open like android android would have a problem and it would take a lot longer to get to where it is now but since its not ios wont touch it its just like windows and macs all over again and yea android is fragmented but so is the iphone maybe not as bad as android but it still is it must be a good day for android and even if the iphone 4 just came out and its selling good but most of those ppl that owned an iphone bought it its not like there are much new ppl buying it but anyways he knows what hes talking about u seem to not know what your talking about and to tell u the truth most ppl that buy the iphone is cuz someone else has it not cuz they chose to buy it if someone took the iphone and the most featured android phone u pick it would break iphone in half and eat it and shit it out
but thats the point most ppl here arent happy that there fav manufacture sold a lot of phone no one gives a shit about that lol if apple sold more phones than samsung well who fucking cares lol i atleast dont care about the manufacture the point is that android is overwhelming ios and a lot of ppl say its the best os ever when how can it be the best os ever when it doesnt even have some features that come with android like it finaly took apple more than 4 years to actualy do multitasking what they have isnt eve full multi. its half as shit BUT its a smart way to multi. android os is a more hole os than ios but ios is more stylish but i would rather have more features and doesnt look that bad cuz u can customize it to what ever u want cuz of it bein open if i wanted to i could write a code and make android look like ios or could make it exactly like ios with a Linux kernal under and from the future of where android is going this is going to turn in to 70 80 90 where mac was overwhelmed by windows and im sure this is going to happen in the future and another thing wtf is up with the childish os seriously ios is for like lil kids i understand that making it simple is good but this is just ridiculous im not dumb you dont need to make it like a kids game but now to phones apple does sell more than any phone maker HERE IN THE US every where else 7th and soon to be 8th cuz of htc but everywhere else apple isnt even well known out of the us only im major countries dont even get me started on the anttena problem which would never happen to all android phones cuz there are more than once flavor of maker the iphone 4 it self is sexy tho but the iphone is at no point going to over run all of them and to tell u the truth iphone wont be going to far i say in more than 5-10 yea the iphone wont be such a "hot" phone
so is iphone maybe not as bad as android but it still is and once 3.0 hit they will slow down the os making to once a year
lol well most ppl couldve said that about android when it came out y use that when u can buy an iphone dont get me wrong i love android as much as any android fan lol but you cant say that
you dont know much about phone market or any market at all its not so much how many they sold when ur trying to compaire companies on how well they did u do it by % not numbers unless they had sold the same amount that yea samy(samsung) sold 3.0 mill right? thats 200% gain in there money making phones while nokia got 24. and they last year had 16. thats isnt a very big jump in percentage its 25% gain in phone sales... samy is doing much better than nokia much much much better BUT nokia is still really really really far ahead so nokia is still doing good
ur wrong the iphone 3gs is selling for 100 and it has ios 4 its had it for a while even my gf has it on her itouch my step bro has it on his iphone 3gs
Android is a gimmick.