Android’s U.S. smartphone OS market share plateaus in latest Nielsen report

By on May 31, 2011 at 3:52 PM
mobile May 31, 2011

According to new data released by Nielsen on Tuesday, Android’s market share has hit a plateau in the United States. Android remains the most popular operating system — ahead of iOS and BlackBerry OS, and Windows Mobile — with a 36% share of the market. However, that figure is on a par with the 37% share it had in Nielsen’s last report, released in April, when the operating system made a 22% leap over the study released in June 2010. Nielsen also found that 26% of U.S. mobile users own an iPhone, 23% carry a BlackBerry, 9% use Windows Mobile, 2% carry HP webOS devices, 2% have a Symbian-powered phone, and just 1% have a Windows Phone 7 device. Android users devour the most data, too, downloading an average of 582MB of data each month, compared to the 492MB of data that iOS users download and the 448MB of data HP webOS users consume. Hit the jump for a two more charts reflecting data from Nielsen’s report.

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  • http://www.facebook.com/michaeljmcgrath Michael McGrath

    half gig a month? i laugh at you…

    • Anonymous

      I use that much before I wipe in the morning.  

    • Anonymous

      Uhhhh u do realize that’s an average. Not everyone feels the need to watch porn on their phone like u do.

  • Bringit

    Soiled fragmented oversaturated brand.  Was bound to peak and then tumble.

    • Anonymous

      The calm before the upcoming storm, maybe?

    • Larry Mao

      You obviously did not  notice the fact that so did iOS, which also lost a percentage point. I guess that means that toy phone Apple made also peaked and tumbled, huh?

      • http://www.droiddoes.com/ Norm

        crApples failed iOS is falling fast. It’s so fragmented as glitchy that even the first gen iPhone from 2007 can’t run 4.0. LOL!!

      • Anonymous

        Closet iPhone fanboy

      • Bringit

        You guess wrong.

      • MicroNix

        Of course.  iTrolls can never admit anything negative about their precious phones.  You are completely hopeless.  If Android plateaus, its  “Soiled fragmented oversaturated” but if Apple loses, it is because everyone else is wrong.  Holy shit, you should run for president.  You’d fit right in with the udder crap that comes out of Washington these days.  Maybe you can work with Palin on her campaign.

      • Anonymous

        You must be right. The iPhone went from net 50% of the total available profits in the mobile space to securing 55%. Sounds like the kind of peaking I am looking for.

  • Anonymous

    Unfortunately for Android OEMs, “profit” plateaued 2 years ago. 

    • Anonymous

      Tell that to HTC.

      • Anonymous

        It’s too bad their profit in the same quarter last year was less than $200 million.

        HTC: 9.7 million phones, $517 million in profit. 

        Apple: 18.7 million iPhones for a $3 billion profit (out of a $6 billion dollar total profit). 

        That’s right; Apple sold less than twice as many devices, yet made SIX times as much profit, just on the iPhone. HTC is a child playing a grown-up game, a concept with which you appear to be familiar.

        Cheers.

      • Anonymous

        Perspectively, ah how it’s so nice to see you commenting yet again on a Google article. You are such a god-damned naysayer and always have a smug attitude – especially when anything positive is mentioned about a product or company you just don’t like. You always place Apple in a pissing match and find a way for them to win.

        Can you just please, for once, calm down.. and can you get rid of a couple of those Apple stickers on the back of your car window? You may need to see out of it one day when changing lanes. Thanks.

      • Teteroto

         This is the truth! Eat that htc!

      • Anonymous

        Thats because the iPhone doesn’t have anyone else to compete with if the user wants to use iOS. If Apple let other companies use iOS from day one, the iPhone would not only have to compete with Android, it would have to compete will all of the other manufacturers using iOS. Android has resurrected companies from nothing into something and has made billions of dollars for them. HTC not only has to compete with the iPhone but it also has to compete with other Android manufacturers. Lastly, why the hell do you care how much Apple makes? Steve really does have all you iHomos hypnotized and there is something wrong with the numbers you posted. If HTC sold 9.7 million phones and only made 517 million but Apple sold 18 million iPhones and made 3 billion then that would mean Steve is ripping you guys off big time. By your numbers he is making about 5 times as much as HTC off each phone sold. Have fun being bent over by by that guy who looks like a AIDS patient.

      • MicroNix

        You should really stop after someone makes a fool of you…Nobody cared or commented on the company you wank off to every night.

        YOU said:  “Unfortunately for Android OEMs, “profit” plateaued 2 years ago.”

        AND GOT BURNED by:  “Tell that to HTC.

        As reported on April 8 on this site: “HTC Q1 profit triples on demand for Android phones”

        Now where in that was anything about Apple?  You are really getting sucky at trolling. 

      • Anonymous

        must make you feel real good to know that apple made all that profit on the backs of chinese industry indentured servants making peanuts working 60-80 hours a week.

      • Anonymous

        This line made me laugh “HTC is a child playing a grown-up game, a concept with which you appear to be familiar.” Such a fool.

    • MicroNix

      Yeah, that’s why HTC just posted record profits for themselves.  Got anymore stupid comments?

  • http://twitter.com/javierislame Jordan Heilman

    DROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOID

  • http://www.facebook.com/applelover Tim Meesseman

    Well, damn… they’re basically giving them away for free. What do they need to do to keep the momentum, pay people to take them?

    • Anonymous

      Yea, because Apple isn’t basically giving it’s 3GS away for free. It’s 50 bucks which is nothing for a mobile device. My parents and in-laws never wanted a iPhone until they could scoop one up for 50 bucks.

      • Zac Caslin

        That’s a 2009 model deal. Not a brand new android buy one get one free. Or better yet wait a week after phone comes out and it will be on amazon for .99 cents.

  • Anonymous

    Oh, BGR… two flamebait posts in a row? You know the iPhans and Phandroids are going to be flinging poo in here.

    I’ll be leaving. You kids play nice.

  • Anonymous

    One can not make conclusion about Android trends based on 3 months of data. Notice that 22% leap was recorded over much longer period of time. Besides, two more factors need to be taken into consideration. Feb-March was period when iPhone became available on Verizon. Before this happened iFans were claiming that with Verizon on board iOS will get its leadership back. It did not. It just slowed down Android advance for a couple of months. Secondly, we went through a period of rapid smart phone adoption. Now it’s in the past. Without new customers and with people keeping their phones for 1.5…2 years, one should not expect any quick changes in OS market shares. From now on it’s going to be a slow moving change (where iOS will decline and Android and WP advance)

    • Anonymous

      What leads you to your conclusion? Your use of the phrase “iFan” leads me to believe you are quite biased.

      • Anonymous

        I assume that you questioned my conclusion about iOS declines. I am basing it on the fact that WP and Android add new features at much higher pace and that Apple hardware is falling behind in specs. They are late in delivering dual core phones, larger screens, 4G, NFC, high res cameras etc. while still demanding higher prices

      • Anonymous

        Did you really just say that WP7 adds new features at a much higher pace than iOS? 

        You know WP7 has had ONE minor update in it’s 6-7 months of existence right? And that it won’t get another update for another 6-7 months minimum?

      • Anonymous

        The iPhone 5 will be released soon, and will be adding at least the dual core A5 (most likely under-clocked) from the iPad. That’s a pretty sick processor, and won’t need an update for another year.

        Specs aren’t everything. You eventually reach a point where current processor speeds do everything you need a phone to do, and the emphasis becomes energy efficiency and size. Further, software is a huge component, and the rumor is the iPhone 5 is delayed because the focus of WWDC is iOS 5.

        Also, NFC is in its infancy (in the U.S.) and won’t be widely adopted until a year from now, in which time the iPhone 6 will have it; the same is true for 4G, and chips at that time will be much more energy efficient. 

      • Anonymous

        I question your claims. Is it market growth is now declining, or are they your assumptions because the features that you need are not there, thus no one wants it? Are you speculating? The market is broad and still young, maybe the near trend is growth at its’ current share for all respective OS’s.

      • Anonymous

        @Pendergast, The iPhone 6 will not have NFC is Stevey boy doesn’t think you need it.

      • Anonymous

        You’ve never seen lilo777 here or on any number of other blogs?  Bashing Apple is his full time occupation.

    • Anonymous

      Heh, LiLOL777, still trolling his anti-Apple hate all over the Web.  Pure entertainment.

      Good luck with your fantasy of Windows Phone dominance.

  • Josh

    You can’t statistically identify a trend off only a couple months of data. Product release and obsolescence cycles (lots of exciting 4g Android phones on the horizon) can often account for short term flat lines. Maybe android is levelling off, but there’s not enough data to say that yet. I personally see significant growth ahead in Android due to the open approach by Google.

    • Anonymous

      That’s because Google wants everyone to use their OS so that they have plenty of information to sell to advertisers and that said ads have plenty of eyeballs. 

      Google doesn’t give Android away out of the goodness of their heart. 

    • Jasonw

      Glad that someone took a statistics class and knows what trend is.

    • http://twitter.com/alovell83 alovell83

      People in the know are holding out for SGS II, also, June-September sales that would’ve gone to Apple in previous years will more likely go to Android if Apple does delay until September.  

  • Anonymous

    It was going to happen sooner or later. Unless Android can get the phone manufacturers to care as much about battery life as they do about adding power and features someone else will come along and steal that market share from them. That’s the biggest thing I look for when I look for a phone and there aren’t many Android phones that can boast good battery life.

    • Anonymous

      Yeah, I’m getting pretty sick of the battery life issues with Android phones, my ThunderBolt last a few hours, and that’s with a custom rom, kernel, and an extended battery.

      • http://twitter.com/alovell83 alovell83

        Yeah, I’m getting pretty sick of people complaining that they need manufacturers to not give them options that allow for more power.

        If you cared about battery life you shouldn’t have gotten the Thunderbolt, that was just ignorance. If you “need” 4G the Charge had such better battery life figures, and if you didn’t need 4G then you reap what you sew.

      • Anonymous

        C’mon, everyone knew the Thunderbolt would have terrible battery life before it even came out.

        Other phones with the 2nd gen snapdragon actually have pretty good battery life, like the mytouch 4g and Incredible 2. It sounds like the Galaxy S2 has decent battery life too.

  • Anonymous

    More interesting to see that as far as ‘data use’ activities go (at least the ones that were predefined by Mobile Insights) iOS leads on every category in use.

    I wonder how it would look if we added in PIM functionality.

    • Anonymous

      Which article are you commenting on? The one in front of us says: “Android users devour the most data, too, downloading an average of 582MB of data each month, compared to the 492MB of data that iOS users download and the 448MB of data HP webOS users consume.”

      Maybe iPhone users wanted to use more data but their connections are too slow (no WiMax, LTE or HSPA+)

      • Anonymous

        reading the same article you are – you don’t find it interesting that on the noted categories, there are higher percentage of iOS users doing those activities?

        I had an iPhone for a week, jumped back to my BlackBerry so I could actually get work done. I do love the iPad though.

      • Anonymous

        Anyone that says “get work done” doesn’t do any work.

      • IWorkSoYOUDontHaveTo

        Yeah, let me know how that dial from a calendar entry works on your iPhone, REAL useful ‘feature’

  • Anonymous

    Norm must be in his mother’s basement sobbing.

    • http://www.droiddoes.com/ Norm

      Nope. Analysts reports that don’t favor droid are flawed. So I’m not concerned.

      • Anonymous

        Wassup Norm!

      • Anonymous

        There must exist many flawed reports.

    • Anonymous

      What’s hilarious is that you tools don’t know what “Norm” is really all about.  (Hint: it’s not about astroturfing Android, unlike millions of others on every comments forum.)

      • Anonymous

        I know very well that Norm is a satirical account you plonker. Its not rocket science!
        I think he is rather brilliant. Hey Norm, do you have a twitter account?

      • Anonymous

        sure you do.

  • Larry Mao

    Seriously? Android and Apple’s iOS both lost 1 percentage point, probably due to a combination of Windows Phone 7, Palm OS and Blackberry, all of which have not really gained any steam. And this means, not that Android and iOS have some competition developing but rather than Android plateaus? Gimme a break. Whoever this writer is either likes trolling, or worked for Fark as an admin in a previous life.

  • http://twitter.com/Translatethis27 Translatethis27

    I think Windows Phone is DEAD

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Pasquale-Parillo/639166212 Pasquale Parillo

    In other news webos DOUBLED…… from 1% to 2%….. :(

  • hockey88

    Apple iOS = 26% online game playing…it’s a toy.

  • Scott

    “downloading an average of 582MB of data each month”

    I would have to say I use MUCH, MUCH more than that each month. Thank God for my grandfathered unlimited data plan!

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_JNKVTT7PJMXPYP2GVCIERBQQCU Andrew

    Verizon iPhone helped with that.  But when the iPhone is finally released on all major carriers, they will see their share go down but sales will continue to grow because the market is growing. 

  • http://profiles.google.com/ceeaser28 ian carr

    fact of the matter is Android is going to start losing market share by a considerable rate. Why you ask because their surge was when no other new devices were launched last year. No webos, WP7 was not until 4Q. Now WP7 has devices on all carriers and has picked up the pace, and Nokias not even in the mix yet. Nokia still sold 445million phones in Q4 and will only be supporting WP7 all I can say is buy some Microsoft stock. other then that the funny part is no new significant Webos device has been out in over a yr, and not only do they still have 2% of market share, and use almost as much data download content a month as IOS. If you people still want to count out Webos you’d be dumb, and are allowing yourself to be shrouded. HP/Palm’s  Webos will be taken alot of market share, as will WP7 by 1st Q2012, and I predict that you will see Androids market share around 25% then with webos and WP7 nearing the 10% mark. They will do this because first HP has more business and consumer channels then anyone in the world, and will be able to mass scale Webos to each and every country, as well as Microsoft and Nokia will be able to do the same. Do your research Google does not have the power at this point to stay on top, the reason why anayslist predict such. They also dont have the experiance, or money captial as those three companys. So sorry Android fans, but with a inferior OS to the likes of Webos, and WP7, and with WP7 being able to saturate the market with actully even more devices then Android in a years time it was only a matter of time before you give back that #1 spot. By the way these are facts look it up before you respond to my post, I do this for a living and have been for over a decade.

    • Beendoingthisforaday

      You do realize these are U.S. numbers right? Why would anyone in the U.S. go into a carrier’s store and purchase a WP7 phone (making little to no ground currently) with a Nokia brand on it (not a player in the U.S. smartphone market) instead of an iPhone or any Android device? Unless an employee is forced to use WP7/Web OS, I just don’t see this chart changing much.

      I’m amazed WinMo still has such a large percent, those are aging phones still being carried around.

      As far as WP7 saturating the market with more devices, they have what 10? and look more similar to each other then Android devices, which isn’t saying much. They are going to release another 10 that are magically different and people will actually start buying them?
       
      No doubt marketshares will change, but don’t fool yourself in thinking WP7 or Web OS are going to shake things up as much as Android has. Google and their OEMs hit a consumer nerve and got lucky in many ways (considering how many crap devices there are) and that isn’t easy to do for every single OS.

  • Anonymous

    “Android remains the most popular operating system”
    It is for smartphones, but not for mobile devices.  iOS trounces Android if you count iPod and iPad as mobile devices.   Therefore, if operating systems is the measure, Android is not the most popular operating system for mobile devices.

  • Anonymous

    Wait until the Sensation and Galaxy S2 come out here…

  • http://www.twitter.com/drmiami DrMiami

    HP WebOS FTW. Get ready to be amazed at what WebOS can do for you, it’s freakin’ awesome.

  • Scott Hartman

    No offense, but last month they released a single month’s market share, while this release is a 3 month market share.  You can’t look at a 3 month spread and compare it to a one month market share and deduce that market share is plateauing.  It’s just, not, possible!

  • D_luv01

    There is really is no Smarphone OS market so I never understood the significance of this chart. Especially when one manufacturer’s secret to growing market share is to give their software for free (they can do that when its not their core business). The reality is the top players are RIM and Apple with HTC a distant 3rd. When HTC or any other Android manufacturer can get more 12% of the TOTAL SMARTPHONE MARKET then I think Apple and RIM will have to worry. Or maybe Google will create a version of of BES and give it away for free too.;)

  • http://twitter.com/skwisgaaar Skwisgaar Skwigelf

    Well, when you have a weather widget downloading data all the time, of course you will download more data. It’s funny how these analytics companies like Garnter, Comscore and Nielsen are finding Android dominance, where every other study with larger sample sizes finds the opposite — indeed iOS has four times as many users as Android. Gartner is well known to cook up numbers that please whoever is funding them. Comscore’s methodology is that they use a relatively small sample size — 30,000 users only in the U.S., and the study is based on sales/subscriptions and not the number of OS users. The latter is important, because Android users need to replace their devices to upgrade to new versions of Android. It is clear, in terms of actual OS users, they are a fraction of iOS. Nielsen also has a small sample size, but I have been unable to find anything about their methodology.

    Anyway, just Google “os market share” and check out some better data. What I see here just doesn’t make sense. Everywhere I go, I see people using iPhones. An Android phone is a rare site these days.

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