The numbers are in and for the first time the Android OS and its universe of devices has beat the iPhone in total number of users. The stats come courtesy of comScore MobiLens. According to the company, Android had 26% of users for the month of November.
During the same month, the iPhone had 25% of users. RIM was still at the top of the list with 33.5% of all users, but their numbers are declining with a 4.1 point change from August of 2010.
While RIM is seeing user numbers decline, the Android OS has seen numbers grow by 6.4 points since August. Apple’s growth is much slower than Android at 0.8 point. Microsoft has 9% of the users and Palm had 3.9% for November.
Via UberGizmo
VICTORY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Anything with the brand name “Google” will definitely beat the original.As is case of search engine,one can’t beat google,now in smartphone too.
With dual core coming out this year . Iphone 4 will have a tougher time . Loosing support left and right. Couldn’t happen to a better company .
Android will rule the Mobile and Tablet market for this decade.
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. Commscore 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 “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 Commscore 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, Commscore 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 in app platforms.
Why can’t analysts make comparisons that are actually useful?
-Mart
There is only so much market share for POST PAID accounts where 95% of the smart phone service customers subscribe (usually in contract). Thousands in revenue during that 2 year contract is very lucrative for the cell carriers. There are so many brands and price ranges for android smart phones that the Iphone can’t compete. That’s why Verizon is silent on getting the Iphone. Their putting their weight behind HTC and Motorola android phones. If Apple wants to sell more iphones, maybe they can activate phones on prepaid services such as NET10 and Tracfone w/o requiring a “data” plan.
@Matrtin
You make some very good points. However, I think this has to do with OS on a smart phone. As far as these numbers including Galaxy Tab and Streak, I really doubt that the sales on those two devices are anything but negligable if they were even included.
3rd party hardware? Lol aren’t you talking about Apple?
Finally, this is only showing OS on a mobile device. Not number of select phones sold. I think its clear that we can learn that Apple has a great phone and if we compared individual hardware, Apple takes the cake. Iphone is an amazing device. This is just showing that Android as an operating system on a smartphone is growing leaps and bounds.
-Larry
@Larry, Whether Streak and Galaxy tab sales were large or not is besides the point. The fact is they and other Android tablets are counted by comScore so falsely skew the statistics.
As far as 3rd party hardware is concerned – have you not walked into any shop and seen shelves and shelves of iPod/iPhone dock equipped HiFi systems, clock radios, car docks, GPS amplifier docks, home automation systems and 70% of new cars with iPod dock and steering wheel integration? Android is missing in action here.
Apple has an overwhelming majority of 3rd party hardware peripheral share as compared to Android or any other phone or media player manufacturer.
Sure the figures shows Android is growing in leaps and bounds, but to say that Android has passed iOS as a mobile platform in installed base is completely false. We have to wait for Apple’s December quarter figures to find out if iOS is still ahead of Android in daily unit sales, but it is highly likely considering the iOS Christmas sales boost.
-Mart
Thanks Martin for making reading this post not a complete waste of my time…another example of comments being better than the original post.
in similar news, people who own Ford/Lincoln/Mazda vehicles outnumber people who own Jeep Grand Cherokees
Wheres Nokia in this – are they the left over 3 or so % ?
U.S. figures only.
Subscribers, which are post paid only.
Really ignores the reast of the world, don’t it? Biased reporting as usual.
Interesting, I fail to see how this article is biased. Regardless, thanks for the post. You are going in my research paper. Android vs Apple.
btw. it’s “doesn’t it”, not “don’t it”.
The table above refers to Nov 2010 vs Aug 2010. Did the author mean 2011? Also, does anyone know if the data is for the US only?