Android gains web marketshare at expense of iOS

By on Jun 14, 2010 at 5:39 PM
mobile June 14, 2010

mobile-web-markertshare

Apple’s iOS might be in the most dominant position when it comes to mobile web traffic in North America, but according to Quantcast, it’s Google’s Android that has been fairing best as of late. From May 2009 to May 2010, iOS traffic fell 8.1% while Android saw a 12.2% increase. Impressive for sure, but that isn’t even the best example of the explosive growth Android is currently benefiting from. During the seventeen months between January 2009 and May 2010, iOS  dropped 16% at the expense of Android which climbed 15% with the two now standing at 59% and 20% respectively. The accuracy of these figures are a little bit questionable as the data does not appear to readily reflect data consumed by applications. On the other hand, this data was collected well after the launch of both the iPad and iPad 3G but before the EVO 4G even hit the market. Regardless, we think it’s easy enough to draw an accurate conclusion about what’s going on here: Android is starting to take generous bites out of Apple.

[Via ReadWriteWeb]

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  • kevin

    I had two iphone and went to Android and love it! Iphone is nice but I don’t need Apple to tell me whats good or bad for me! Let me pick for myself. Plus love the widgets.

    • mingkee

      I am about to try Android platform (will get Nexus One once 2.2 is released).
      I have been using WM for 8 years and I’d like to try something more.
      I also use S60 but multitasking isn’t that great.

      • TypicalVZWRMDBAG

        it is released already, where have you been?

    • jonfu

      i had three android phones. the G1, the Cliq and the Nexus One. Never impressed with android, hated the widgets… nothing but clutter.

  • MikeD

    I’m tired of seeing bloated numbers from both sides. enough already.

    Android has momentum but I have never seen such delusion from any group outside of Fandroids. What stats you guys need to pay attention to is rate of return business. It takes a few years. If the average consumers (NOT GEEKS) are returning then Android has a solid footing, but I am most certain that RIM and Apple have a much higher rate of return customers. Numbers go up and down during the product cycle. Time will tell is basically what I am saying.

    And secondly, is this all Android users do. Is obsess over numbers like this? I don’t care if you are Pro-Apple or Anti-Apple, You guys need a life.

    • Mike

      Funny.

      A lot of my “non-geek” friends just got a bunch of Droids (not just the moto one)… They wanted a sweet phone on Verizon…

      Now, if the iPhone was on VZW, I’m not sure what they’d choose. Honestly, I wish there was some sort of hybrid phone that combined AT&T/Sprint/Verizon/etc and just ran off the best available network… I’d pay $$$ for that…instead of the friends of mine that just have an iPhone AND a BlackBerry (that’s just ridiculous).

    • dario

      You are kidding, right? Apple fanboys not delusional? It happens everytime there is an Apple post here or when Steve Jobs speaks.

      Android’s rate of return is/will be just fine. Apple is doing a good job pi$$ing off enough people to make folks realize competition isn’t such a bad thing after all.

      • Sprinter

        Now is the greatest time ever to be selling smart phones because average consumers are buying in. Apple is missing out on a huge chunk of U.S. consumers because they are locked in with AT&T. No doubt their market share is shrinking, and, will continue to shrink, until they start selling on all carriers.

      • MikeD

        @Dario

        Here’s another headline from another site: “Morgan Stanley: Apple’s iPad browser share already greater than Blackberry, Android” http://www.businessinsider.com/chart-of-the-day-ipad-web-browsing-already-bigger-than-android-blackberry-2010-6

        Big whoop.

        I swear you guys must have voodoo parties wishing Apple’s demise. All of these companies have to do is get enough customers to exist. Simple as that. There is so much business for all the current smartphone makers to survive. So whether or not Apple is on top or Android or RIM or whoever, they all are gonna be around for a long time.

        Fanboys of any stripe are delusional. get it straight. And I see delusion on all sides. Plus I see you guys argue some of the most asinine points.

  • Mark

    Another key point to all the Android “Fanboys”, Android has been around and in operation for THREE years, it is not new, in addition they have at least a dozen or better electronics (mobile phone) manufacturers and several mobile carriers to market the product OS. Considering Apple’s meal ticket is its lonesome and an inferior (so they say) carrier, the fact that their market share is higher tells the story. Will Apple stay on top, probably not, will Android be the iPhone killer, who knows. Time will tell all.
    Being an Apple “Fanboy” I like the fact that Google has put pressure on the market. It will push all companies to evolve and make better products. Maybe even force Apple to produce more than one phone. If that does happen………..look out, because their market share will explode. Don’t believe it………..turn the iPod into a cell phone (not a smart phone) and see what happens. An entry level product, marketed on a cheap cell plan and you can kiss the majority of cheap cell phones good bye. And that market is with no doubt the majority of cell manufacturers bread and butter.

    • Mike

      Since when has Apple ever released anything “entry level.”

      But if you mean…pull a BMW and release their phone version of the 1 series…then yeah…maybe. I see them sticking to the same clientèle (never know though).

      • Mark

        You could be right Mike, they always have been a company to stick with what sells and not bloat there line up. But, they are very keen on marketing, they know when and how to introduce, and when they have no more Aces in the hole, they will have to do something to retain solid capital.

      • McHale

        Then their PC sales must be through the roof! They’ve been in the business the longest.

      • MikeD

        People forget that Apple went down that road of offering too many options. It nearly killed them. Once they pulled back, simplified the line was when Apple started making their second run at success.

        This to is coming to Android. There is still no unified experience. Quality varies too much from low end and high end Android devices. Thats because of varying standards each of the hardware makers have.

        Clearly there are difference in values when you compare a happy iPhone user and a happy Android user. The biggest thing iPhone users seem to tout is reliable ease of use. The biggest thing Android users go on about is Hardware, hardware hardware. But their desires overlap in many areas.

        I also find that most iPhone users love competition, while most Android users drone on about Apple dying? Oh I get it, competition is only when everybody is fighting on one platform? Droid vs Incredible is competition but its still the same OS. Which puts no pressure whatsoever on Google to improve. So the bone-heads who think killing Apple is going to improve Android are very foolish indeed.

      • Ryszard

        @ Mike: Since when has Apple ever released anything “entry level.”

        The iPhones start at $99. That’s pretty entry level in my book. The iPad was introduced at almost half the price of what was expected. I think that low cost is one of the reasons there’s still no one in the market with a competitive product.

        But it’s so much easier to just keep repeating a ‘truism’ that went away about a decade ago, right Mike?

      • JoeBold

        *****expected.******
        of course, it wasn’t expected. Apple has the highest prices in the industry. but that dosent make it ‘entry level’!

        Marcedes benz just dropped their price for their top model from 80K to 65K
        your logic would call that “an entry level car”………………

      • McHale

        By not releasing a phone with MMS and copy and paste out of the chute, I’d call THAT an entry level OS. Don’t forget that it also didn’t have 3G when 3G was already pretty well established.

  • Mike

    PS…iPhone OS includes Touches…

    • Mark

      It includes iPads as well, if you think this is a battle over cell phones your crazy. The land line is slowly disappearing and cell phone will fade faster on a one to one comparison. Ma Bell had a long track run. This fight is going to be all about mobile computing/communication. Look at how many texters we have now that don’t even use their plan minutes. If it can connect to a network and be carried across the country, you have to take the full compliment into perspective.

  • noReally

    over 1% awesome! It’s amazing how you can give away phones and people will use them! Buy one get one frees a pretty good deal, even if the phones have older OSes and aren’t going to get a new version for a long long time

    • kitsunisan

      “the phones have older OSes on them and aren’t going to get a new version for a long long time”
      You mean the way the iPhone 2g and 3g won’t be getting the full 4.0 update?

  • wanderer

    Wait till the Iphone goes on Verizon and who knows what else. I guess that one sub-par carrier was still able to generate that much traffic on one phone for a long time. What if that one phone went to 2 carriers, which I believe android has. Not convinced until the odds are even.

  • Crippler

    I own a 3gs. I really like the phone. I think Safari on the iPhone is the best phone based browser. The apps are a nice plus.

    What I don’t like? AT&T. Dropped calls, blah blah blah. You’ve all heard it before.

    And that is the reason I will switch back to Verizon this fall and go with Android. Android has finally matured into a very nice OS, comparable to iPhones OS.

    And that is what you are starting to see – people want and iPhone on a different carrier – and Android is starting to provide them with that.

    If Verizon gets an iphone before the end of the year, I’ll stick with apple, otherwise Droid hear i come!

    • wanderer

      Thats what I figure out why Android is gaining momentum, and I know a lot of friends on Verizon that wants an Iphone and has an android device instead simply for that reason. With the flood of iphone users on AT&T, data and call issues are frequent and discouraging to someone with Iphone in mind. Once its on Verizon it will free up AT&T and gain more users overall. The numbers will change then. I have to admit that Android has matured quite a bit, but still lack the solidity and polish of the Iphone. Google has to keep android from being fragmented in the future for it to surpass the iphone in everything. I would like to see the iOS on another device, then you could compare Android and iOS since they are both OSs.

  • http://www.hyundaifans.com hyundaifans.com

    Android is the future. I have no doubt it will surpass the iphone within 2 years.

    • Jayhammy

      You have partly quoted one of my quote of quotes:
      “Blackberry is the past; iPhone, the present; Android, the future.”

  • http://www.apexcarpentryinc.com Utah deck builder

    Open will always beat out closed in the end. The iphone will become like the Mac and reach a certain level and go no higher. Android with the amount of unique hardware and carriers carrying it will dominate the market. My Incredible is a great phone.

    • Jayhammy

      I totally agree. I’ve shown my Incredible to some of my friends who either have or want to have iPhones. They’re totally impressed and usually say, “Wow, I didn’t think there was anything like that out there.” That’s partly because of Apple’s huge ecosystem and amazing marketing. But it’s also because of Verizon’s LACK of marketing. There are hardly anything ads for the Incredible, even before it became scarce as hen’s teeth in the Mojave Desert.

  • mingkee

    It’s all about platform coverage.
    Here in US, iphone only covers AT&T (or T-Mobile) and never have CDMA carrier covered; Android, on the other hand, phones running this platform are available with almost all carriers, even MetroPCS.

  • Johnny

    LOL at all the idiots flocking to an OS being given away by an advertising company solely for the purpose of increasing their ad revenues. You’re getting screwed and you don’t even know it.

    • Crippler

      Let me know how those iADs work out for ya.

      • Korger

        Developers will keep 60% of revenues from iAds. They will also host and deliver the ads. All the developer has to do is tell Apple which ad they want included in their app.

        How much is Google giving back to developers for ads?

      • Korger

        Apple will host the ads.Not developers. Just wanted to be clear.

  • patrick

    Hasn’t anyone seen the Morgan Stanley report about how no one other than apple is making money from the app store!!!There are maybe three or four success stories about app developers hitting it big. Please it’s a big ole pyramid scheme.It’s a fact, Morgan Stanley said it.

  • perspective

    ok I just want to put a little perspective not that im dissing android because im happy for their success. but android software is in multiple phones, distributed throughout multiple carriers in the us. Iphone os is just one software put on one phone, carried exclusively with att (for now). i’m just saying that one android phone can not do what the iphone has done. so even if you hate iphone it was truly what really brought mobile web browsing to the way we see it today.

    • Jayhammy

      I agree with you…partly. Yes, it’s just one company making one iPhone with a few different choices (8gb, 16gb, etc). BUT, they’ve had the iPod ecosystem in place for a while, which nobody else has had. Kids with Ipod touches are already groomed to buy iPhones. This is Apple’s brilliance here. The iOS is everywhere and has been around for only a few years. But, you can’t carry your logic and say that no single company has outdone the iPhone with just a single other phone–while that’s true, that’s not the point. The point is that it’s the OS FIRST and then the PHONE second that, I believe, attracts people. Example: People consider buying a phone. They look at Iphone, Blackberry, then Android devices. Once they see the unbelievable choices of Android, they’re likely to choose one. “Hmm, HTC has this cool “sense”, Moto Droid has this; Samsung has that. But they all are running Android. I’ll take the Incredible, please.”
      So, my point is, it’s not a single phone that’s competing against Apple (thankfully), it’s the whole OS with all its choices, which is much more powerful IMHO.

  • Dale Earnhardt Jr.

    Didn’t anyone read the morgan stanley piece about how apple went out of business yesterday? Geez, people! Learn to read!

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