Survey Puts Android in Clear Lead

By Ben Rooney
February 15, 2012, 6:17 PM GMT


Android’s ever-growing dominance of the mobile space continues apace, with the results of an analyst survey suggesting the platform now commands more than 50% of the market.

Gartner’s report follows a report by Canalys last week which had Google’s operating system accounting for just under half the market (48.8%). Gartner puts the figure at 50.9%.

The first Android handset only appeared in 2008.

But Android didn’t have it all its own way. In the last quarter of last year, Apple sales surged, adding 18 million units, taking sales for the quarter to 35.5 million, pushing its market share to 23.8% for the quarter. In the fourth quarter of 2010, Apple had commanded some 15.8%.

“It has been a blow-out quarter for Apple because of the delayed purchases of the [iPhone] 4S,” said Gartner analyst Roberta Cozza. But she sounded a note of caution. “We are not expecting the same level of performance in the next quarter. We expect sales will decline.”

The bumper-quarter results pushed Apple into the top slot for smartphone makers for 2011, with 89.2 million units, just ahead of Samsung with 87.1 million.

For all mobile phones, Nokia remained the world’s largest manufacturer in 2011, with 422 million units, accounting for 23.8% of the market. That represents a contraction from 28.9% for 2010.

Ms. Cozza said the figures painted a story of mixed fortunes. Nokia’s share of the market continues to contract, but while its new Windows Phone range, the Lumia, hasn’t stormed the market, the Finnish company has moved 1.3 million units since Lumia’s introduction in November. Other ranges, such as the series 40 and the new Asha range, had done well, she said.

“Nokia has shown its traditional strength in emerging markets; some of the new Asha devices have done well,” Ms. Cozza said. However, she pointed to a cannibalization of Nokia’s own range. “Some customers who would have gone to Symbian have gone instead to the Asha products,” she said.

She suggested that the Asha range would do well in some European markets, notably Spain and Italy.

The Finnish giant continues to be squeezed in both directions. It faces significant challenges in the smartphone market from Android and Apple, and in its heartland, the continuing threat from Chinese makers such as Huawei and ZTE.

Still, Ms. Cozza was bullish on the company’s long-term future. “I think Nokia could have a turnaround,” she said. “We are pretty positive that Windows Phone will be a top-three operating system by 2015.”

To achieve that, she said Nokia needed to focus on the mid-tier smartphone market.

Her prediction that Windows Phone will pass BlackBerry was also to do with BlackBerry’s continuing problems. “The new platform has been delayed and I am not sure that the change of management has been as drastic as it needs to be.”

She highlighted Research in Motion’s dependence on its highly popular BBM service, especially amongst teenagers, but suggested they were a very volatile market and could quickly abandon the platform if a rival were est@blished.

Survey Puts Android in Clear Lead - Tech Europe - WSJ

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inb4theusualsuspects

[smiley]

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This is not a "survey". A survey takes data from a few thousand members polled. Sometimes it's not even that many polled. This is actual research with hard numbers.

iPhone stans avoiding this thread like the plague

They have been in the lead for a while now...

my 5year old niece got a droid. droids=new sidekicks

Naaah homie, iPhone is the new Sidekick

Android is available on any phone, pretty much, that's not an iPhone. What's that 50+ vs 1? No !! it would be in the lead.

not for long dont sleep on Microsoft

different year same !!:

android is supposed to have a bigger marketshare.

You can call me an iphone stan if you want to..... I love my phone and I will stand by it always.
#teamiPhone

Apple drops a phone how often???...and still can do 90% of what most droid phones do....So what does that tell you?

why do we keep arguing over and over about this...android is on tons of phones only a few models of iPhones so of course they dominate..if you're a company that has tons of models out and can't beat a company with a few models out i would worry about the future of your company

Windows Phone 7, and Blackberry OS on [rip] watch

@ P HIll ...it should have gone w/o saying which is why we really weren't in here but since you have to spell shyt out for android users...

I had a droid 2 global, and just recently got an iphone. The iPhone i would say, is developed better than the droid (things work better, and faster), making it more efficient. It's less like an actual computer, but I think i might like it better than my droid.. not sure.. maybe a tie?