Katie Marsal
Sales of 17.3 million iPhones to end users in the third quarter of 2011 garnered iOS a 15 percent market share, making Apple's smartphone platform the third-largest worldwide. But that percentage was down from the third quarter of 2010, when Gartner says iOS represented 16.6 percent of smartphones sold.
Apple's apparent 1.6 percent loss came at the hands of Android, which saw huge year over year growth. Google's mobile operating system was estimated to power 60.5 million units sold in the third quarter of 2011, good for 52.5 percent of all smartphones sold in the three-month period.
That was well up from the 20.5 million Android-powered smartphones sold in the third quarter of 2011, according to Gartner, when the platform accounted for a 25.3 percent market share.
In fact, Android's growth was so explosive that nearly every other smartphone maker saw market share losses, even though companies like Apple saw a significant year over year increase in actual units sold. Nokia's Symbian remained the No. 2 worldwide smartphone platform in the third quarter of 2011, but its 16.9 percent share was down significantly from the market-leading 36.3 percent it held during the same period in 2010.
Research in Motion also saw its platform fall from 15.4 percent share in 2010 to 11 percent in 2011, while Microsoft dropped from 2.7 percent a year ago to 1.5 percent in the third quarter of 2011. Only Samsung's Bada platform saw year over year growth, going from 1.1 percent in 2010 to 2.2 percent in 2011.
"Android benefited from more mass-market offerings, a weaker competitive environment and the lack of exciting new products on alternative operating systems such as Windows Phone 7 and RIM," said Roberta Cozza, principal research analyst at Gartner. "Apple's iOS market share suffered from delayed purchases as consumers waited for the new iPhone. Continued pressure is impacting RIM's performance, and its smartphone share reached its lowest point so far in the U.S. market, where it dropped to 10 percent."
Of course, market share only tells part of the story, as Apple has been consistently shown to dominate profits in the mobile industry. One study from earlier this month found that with just 4 percent share of the total mobile phone market, Apple's iPhone rakes in 52 percent of total mobile profits.
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84 Comments
"Apple's apparent 1.6 percent loss came at the hands of Android, which saw huge year over year growth."
This would imply that Apple lost total users to Android, which I don't think is the case. I think the case is that as a partof the whole smartphone market (which increased), Android made up a far larger chunk of those new users than Apple did.
Not surprising since most people, even those that don't read tech blogs, knew a new iPhone was "overdue" by prior year standards.
Android might never have gotten "off the ground" in the first place had the iPhone had been multi carrier from day one.
Gartner: yes, yes, we already know this.
How many ways are we going to hear echos of the same fact, i.e. consumers delayed purchase of the iPhone in calendar Q3, in anticipation of the new version in calendar Q4?
Let's see what these organizations all say in January and February, when they are 2 months late with what we already know: this Q's surprise will be commensurate with last Q's disappointment.
Thompson
Android might never have gotten "off the ground" in the first place had the iPhone had been multi carrier from day one.
I doubt it. Android sells a lot simply because it is an OS available on multiple phones. You might as well compare the number of bullets fired from a sniper versus a machine gun.
Android might never have gotten "off the ground" in the first place had the iPhone had been multi carrier from day one.
I don't think Apple is losing any sleep over a comparison between their market share and the COMBINED market share of a bunch of devices that happen to share the "Android" name but very little else. It's really quite an arbitrary sum, considering the fact that "Android" is not 100% compatible across hardware lines like Microsoft's OS was.
The iPhone 4, 4S, and 3GS are still the most popular single models in the US, and together they capture 50% of the handset industry profits. Basically, Apple just gave a clinic on how to enter a cutthroat, highly competitive business and still maintain margins, quality, and brand power. It was unprecedented and superbly executed.
Thompson