Google Android Now America’s #2 Mobile Operating System

10:58 pm on January 9, 2011 | Category: Mobile Devices, Software, Web Services

Google Android has overtaken Apple’s iOS to become the second most popular mobile operating system among American smartphone users.

As of November 2010, Android powered 26% of U.S. smartphones, up from 19.6% in August 2010, according to MobiLens, the mobile division of tech research firm, comScore. Apple’s iOS, the platform of the popular iPhone device, held a 25% market share in November (up from 24.2% in August), while Research In Motion’s BlackBerry OS remained the market leader but slipped to 33.5% (down from 37.6%).

The overall number of U.S. smartphone users increased 10% during the August-to-November quarter, to a nationwide total of 61.5-million.

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    1. However, Apple’s overall iOS installed base is still double the size of Android and daily sales of iOS devices look to still be greater than Android. comScore only counts the iPhone not the hot-selling iPod Touch or iPad despite including tablets like the Dell Streak and Samsung Galaxy Tab in their Android smartphone OS figures.

      My question to you is: what are smartphone *operating system* marketshare figures useful for?

      If your answer is “so developers and consumers can see which is the largest platform for their software”, then why are you not including all iOS devices in your analysis? If you do that, then Apple’s installed base suddenly doubles and leaves both Android and Blackberry in the dust.

      If you answer that OS marketshare figures are important for advertisers, then again, why not include all iOS devices that share the same mobile browser and app platform?

      If you answer “to group all devices with a common graphical user interface and user experience together”, then you should be comparing all the individual manufacturer or carrier-created Android GUIs such as MotoBlur or Sense individually against iOS.

      If you answer “so 3rd party hardware peripheral manufacturers know which platform to target” then you should be considering the far larger number of iOS devices that all share a common dock connector and standard form factor compared to the completely fragmented form factor and dock connector standards of the myriads of much smaller competitors.

      Of course consumers also want to know which phone has the most dock-equipped audio systems, car steering wheel interfaces, clock radios, etc and of course the answer is the iPhone which is virtually unchallenged in this regard.

      The fact is that comScore includes tablets like the Streak and Galaxy Tab in their figures because Google requires all tablets include cell phone hardware in order to get access to the Android Marketplace. However, comScore does not count the iPod touch and the iPad. The iPod touch even by itself boasts sales close to that of the iPhone, particularly during the pre-Christmas quarter.

      With the iPod touch and iPad completely obliterating the opposition in mini tablets and tablets respectively and sales of both equalling iPhone sales, Apple still has by far the largest mobile OS platform installed base easily doubling that of Android.

      In terms of new sales, back in October Apple was selling 270,000 iOS devices a day (peaking at 300,000 on some days) when Google was activating 200,000 Android devices. Recently Google announced they had hit 300,000 activations a day, and while we haven’t yet heard what Apple’s latest figures are it is highly likely they will be higher than Android thanks to the usual pre-Christmas sales surge of all iOS devices.

      If you are only interested in smartphones, then why aren’t you comparing Samsung, Motorola, HTC, etc all individually against Apple and RIM? After all, operating systems are only interesting if you are comparing app platforms.

      Why can’t analysts make comparisons that are actually useful?

      -Mart

      Comment by Martin Hill — January 10, 2011 #

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