2Q US Smartphone Market Share: Lack Of iPhone 5 Costs Apple, Android Jumps 5.4%

[jpeyton]

Before the fanboys get this thread locked as well, please keep the discussion on market share. Not who has the better phone, not who makes more profit...but MARKET SHARE.

http://www.slashgear.com/comscore-reports-android-smartphone-share-grows-to-40-percent-04169712/

So Apple decided to forgo their yearly iPhone upgrade cycle, and it certainly cost them market share in the short term. The iPhone 4 is undoubtedly selling very well for a year-old handset, but Android surged 5.4% in the last quarter anyway...and that's without the SGS2 or Droid Bionic.

Without an iPhone 5 until October, Android should gain another 5% at minimum with the SGS2 and Droid Bionic.

 

[Bateluer]

Watching RIM and MS drop is almost pitiful. Especially MS, since they had negligible market share before, and they're actually going down from there. At least MS has something moderately compelling in their WP7 devices, but RIM hasn't got squat.

 

[Pliablemoose]

Apple gained marketshare with 2 phones, one a year old one 2 years old on one carrier, and 1 1 year old phone design on another carrier...

Guess Apple is still doomed.

Also, for asking for this thread to not be an OS flame war, I notice the OP took a lot of shots at Apple, who actually gained marketshare, and ignored the manufacturers/OS that actually lost marketshare.

 

[kaerflog]

And why is marketshare so important ???
Especially when Apple takes about ~66% of the top 8 vendors smartphone profits ??
I must have failed economic 101.

 

[jpeyton]

And why is marketshare so important ???

It's not important. You should find a thread more important than this one to occupy your time.

 

[boomhower]

They are loosing now, mainly because of the iPhone 5 delay. The new Android phones are very impressive also certainly helps. But when the 5 is released they will gain most if not all back. I really think their is a lot of pent up demand for it. If they drop the 4 to $99 that'll just add to it. The 4 for $99 is a lot of phone for the dollar.

 

[jpeyton]

Apple gained marketshare with 2 phones, one a year old one 2 years old on one carrier, and 1 1 year old phone design on another carrier...

Half right; I'm betting their 1.1% net gain was almost entirely on the "iPhones are new to me" Verizon network, whose subscriber base has only had the iPhone 4 available to them since February.

Guess Apple is still doomed.

Don't fret, Apple will still make tons of money and sell tons of iPhones. They simply won't have the dominant smartphone OS. They'll finish 2011 with a strong second place finish in the US, and a distant second place worldwide.

Also, for asking for this thread to not be an OS flame war, I notice the OP took a lot of shots at Apple, who actually gained marketshare, and ignored the manufacturers/OS that actually lost marketshare.

The market is ignoring MS/Nokia and RIM...so am I. It's not exactly news that they are hemorrhaging market share, is it?

 

[the DRIZZLE]

Watching RIM and MS drop is almost pitiful. Especially MS, since they had negligible market share before, and they're actually going down from there. At least MS has something moderately compelling in their WP7 devices, but RIM hasn't got squat.

I think the poor numbers for MS are the real story here. We already new RIM had screwed themselves.

 

[DivideBYZero]

Before the fanboys get this thread locked as well

Stop posting flame-bait if it upsets you when your threads are locked.

 

[Red Storm]

I didn't see the OP state that Apple was "doomed", simply that because their new phone isn't out yet, Android gained some more marketshare. It makes perfect sense, and I don't see why anyone here would get upset over it. Apple isn't going anywhere, and neither is Android, but we're not idiots here, we already know that. It will be very interesting to see what happens after the SGS2 and the next iPhone hit the market (US market for the SGS2).

 

[dguy6789]

I think a Galaxy S2 launching on the multiple US carriers around the same time as the next iPhone launches would be very interesting to see.

 

[BenSkywalker]

And why is marketshare so important ???

At a given level, marketshare will dictate support throughout the industry. If Windows Mobile had 95% of the market and WebOS had 5% then Windows Mobile would get massive support across the board and WebOS would be dealing with marginal support at best. With a bunch of relatively evenly paired competitors things like developer relations/development platform etc can have a big impact. At a certain point, those factors become trivial side noise and everyone jumps ship from the lesser platforms(or marginalizes support).

 

[Oyeve]

Apple gained marketshare with 2 phones, one a year old one 2 years old on one carrier, and 1 1 year old phone design on another carrier...

Guess Apple is still doomed.

Also, for asking for this thread to not be an OS flame war, I notice the OP took a lot of shots at Apple, who actually gained marketshare, and ignored the manufacturers/OS that actually lost marketshare.

He said no such thing so keep the flint stones at bay please.

 

[kaerflog]

At a given level, marketshare will dictate support throughout the industry. If Windows Mobile had 95% of the market and WebOS had 5% then Windows Mobile would get massive support across the board and WebOS would be dealing with marginal support at best. With a bunch of relatively evenly paired competitors things like developer relations/development platform etc can have a big impact. At a certain point, those factors become trivial side noise and everyone jumps ship from the lesser platforms(or marginalizes support).

You fail at comprehending that Apple still take 66% of the top 8 vendors smartphone profits.
Look at this chart and see how much Apple make per phone.
http://www.asymco.com/2011/07/30/the-profitphone-x-phones-sold-chart/
Its close to $300 per phone.
All other Android manufacturers make like $0-$60 per phone mostly closer to $10.

 

[kaerflog]

Sorry if you guys fail at comprehending the intention of the OP.
He just posted this thread a few days ago hinting at Apple doom and gloom and it got locked.
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2182095
So he basically posted the same crap again.
This is going to become another OS flame war thread.

 

[BenSkywalker]

You fail at comprehending that Apple still take 66% of the top 8 vendors smartphone profits.

In any way, what does that have to do with marketshare? Dell could make 100% of all smartphone profits and be at less then 1% marketshare(not likely, but absolutely possible).

 

[cheezy321]

At a given level, marketshare will dictate support throughout the industry. If Windows Mobile had 95% of the market and WebOS had 5% then Windows Mobile would get massive support across the board and WebOS would be dealing with marginal support at best. With a bunch of relatively evenly paired competitors things like developer relations/development platform etc can have a big impact. At a certain point, those factors become trivial side noise and everyone jumps ship from the lesser platforms(or marginalizes support).

If this was true Android would get all of the great apps first and have a fantastic developer base. However, we know this is not true and the $$$ to be made is in the apple store and all of the great apps still come out for iOS first.

How long has Android had dominant market share now? Hasn't it been over a year? When is it going to change? The bottom line is that developers go where the $$$ is being spent, and everyone on android is either a) cheap b) pirates everything or c) doesnt have any money.

 

[Genx87]

Looks like they took a lot out of RIM and Microsoft.

 

[BenSkywalker]

How long has Android had dominant market share now?

They don't even have a majority marketshare now, they aren't remotely approaching dominant. They are trending in that direction if someone doesn't stop them, but they still have a ways to go.

 

[pm]

This is going to become another OS flame war thread.

I sincerely hope not. I'm watching it though.

 

[poofyhairguy]

How long has Android had dominant market share now? Hasn't it been over a year? When is it going to change? The bottom line is that developers go where the $$$ is being spent, and everyone on android is either a) cheap b) pirates everything or c) doesnt have any money.

Agreed that is the case today. The question is at what level does the sheer marketshare of Android force it to be the primary platform? When its half the smartphone market? When its 70% of the smartphone market?

 

[cheezy321]

Agreed that is the case today. The question is at what level does the sheer marketshare of Android force it to be the primary platform? When its half the smartphone market? When its 70% of the smartphone market?

Is there a concrete number we can look at? Some articles I am finding are saying that android is already dominant with 50% of the market.

http://www.thetechherald.com/articl...oid-now-on-almost-half-of-world-s-smartphones

 

[dguy6789]

If this was true Android would get all of the great apps first and have a fantastic developer base. However, we know this is not true and the $$$ to be made is in the apple store and all of the great apps still come out for iOS first.

How long has Android had dominant market share now? Hasn't it been over a year? When is it going to change? The bottom line is that developers go where the $$$ is being spent, and everyone on android is either a) cheap b) pirates everything or c) doesnt have any money.

"everyone on android is either a) cheap b) pirates everything or c) doesnt have any money." Just quoting this again for the fun of it.

The Android Market has a gigantic number of AAA apps. Pretty much every major app has full first party support on Android by now and they work perfectly fine. There are some niche apps that are really nice on iOS that are not on Android yet, but the opposite is also true. Don't make the mistake of thinking just because there's a large number of low quality apps that there are not high quality apps at all.

The reason less money is spent in the Android Market than on the iOS store is because it's a heck of a lot easier to do more with less money on the Android Market than on the iOS store. There are a huge number of extremely useful, extremely well done apps on the Android Market that are free. There are not on the iOS store, virtually everything costs money, even apps that are not worth a cent. What iOS users are used to paying for, Android users are used to getting something just as good for free. This is why they are reluctant to spend a lot of money because the default value of apps are lower to them(Free apps can be extremely good, so an app that costs money better be damn good). Versus an iOS user who expects everything, even bad apps they will only use once to cost money.

 

[runawayprisoner]

Well, as I noted in the last thread, even though Apple may not gain any marketshare in the smartphone sector, they gain it elsewhere. The iPhone is but one device in the whole ecosystem that is iOS.

It might be true that the lack of an iPhone 5 is undoing Apple's momentum in the marketplace, but they are still growing in the tablet and media player markets.

If anything were to happen, I believe the worst to be that developers start shifting their focus to non-phone iOS devices such as the iPod Touch, or the iPad, and then a version of their offering for iPhone would still be there but not as focused to phone-specific features.

But then that has been the case since ever...

Meanwhile, I find it amazing that commanding 50% marketshare doesn't give Android the support it needs from developers. Perhaps when it starts taking up a huge chunk of the market, but I doubt it'll surpass 70% since Apple currently holds close to 30% of the entire market. And that's assuming all of the other guys like RIM, Microsoft, Nokia, and HP fails to bring anything new to the table, which is very unlikely. I think it'll level out with Android at a bit over 55%. 15% to the RIM, MS, Nokia, HP crowd, and 30% for Apple.

 

[kaerflog]

In any way, what does that have to do with marketshare? Dell could make 100% of all smartphone profits and be at less then 1% marketshare(not likely, but absolutely possible).

Are you serious ??
Being in business = making profits.
- Do you want to sell 1000 phones making $1/per phone. ??
- Or Do you want to sell 100 phones making $100/per phone. ??