Android U.S. market share slides in March quarter as iPhone gains

Google’s share of the U.S. smartphone market dipped for the first time since 2009 according to Needham & Co. analyst Charlie Wolf. Needham says Android’s share slid from 52.4% to 49.5% in the first quarter, its first sequential market share loss in any region since the second quarter of 2009. Wolf attributes the dip to the launch of Verizon Wireless’ iPhone 4; Apple’s U.S. market share ballooned more than 12 points to 29.5% in the first quarter. Wolf believes Android’s market share in the U.S. will rebound in the June and September quarters, though it will see a “material decline” in the fourth quarter of 2011 following the launch of Apple’s fifth-generation iPhone. “This is just the beginning of Android’s share loss in the U.S.,” Wolf wrote in a note to investors. “The migration of subscribers to the iPhone on the Verizon network should accelerate this fall when Apple coordinates the launch of iPhone 5 on the GSM and CDMA networks. The iPhone could also launch on the Sprint and T-Mobile networks.” Hit the break for a graphical representation of U.S. smartphone market share from IDC.

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Tags: Android, Android 2.3, Android 3.0, Android 3.1, Apple, Gingerbread, google, honeycomb, iPhone, iPhone 4, iPhone 5, Market, share, smartphone market, US, US market share

Anonymous

This is nothing next quarter android will dip even more. Come fall it’s all about apple.

http://twitter.com/mfg68 MFG

LOL You’re delusional.

http://twitter.com/ocdtrekkie Jake Weisz

His name is “macboy”, delusional is second nature to him.
Anonymous

Ok Jake.
Anonymous

Not as delusional as your girl was last night after my beef stick. True story.

Anonymous

Another fail “analysis” article..

http://twitter.com/snookasnoo Idon’t Know

Yeah I hate when articles provide facts and numbers to reach an obvious conclusion.

The iPhone will be on Sprint and T-Mobile shortly as well. Then many fewer buyers will be choosing Android.

http://daveysmind.tumblr.com David M.D.

Actually the chart is not actual facts. He says his chart info is from IDC, yet IDC shows none of this at all. Not only that, this comes from the analyst that said the iPhone 4 would cause such a impact on Verizon that Android would lose major momentum.

This isn’t a defense for Android or iOS. All I know is that this so called analyst has no credibility whatsoever in his analyzing
http://marcparadise.com/ Marc Paradise

This isn’t for or against any specific set of numbers: they’re all crap, no matter which phone is listed on top.

Haven’t you noticed that the “facts” and “numbers” vary depending on
who is reporting them? The market share number reports come from umpteen different “analysts” and each one reports different figures.

Note that each one often fails to describe methodology*: what is the *source* of their data? News flash: the only way we can get accurate data is if all carriers submitted numbers to a centralized source (or made them universally available), indicating exactly which phones are active for each quarter. And the carriers aren’t about to start doing that.

Anything short of that is speculation, and is usually released for purpose of nudging a stock price in one direction or another. That’s why I don’t understand why so many me-too blogs pick them up and report them as news every time another analyst opens his mouth.

But hey, if you want to take them all at face value, I’ve got a bridge to sell you…

* the exception here are advertising networks. Unfortunately, those numbers are also not going to be terribly accurate: they are limited to devices and applications installed that use a given network. This means that if an app only exists on a subset of devices, or is more popular on one device than another, the reported numbers will be skewed.

Anonymous

Wow, what happened to RIM?

http://twitter.com/jinjo236 Adam Kilker

See: every other article on BGR
Paul

No kidding eh, that’s an insane decline. Really puts their current situation into perspective.
sirpaul

They probably got their stats based on browser use. Nobody buys a BB to browse the web – it is all about the messaging.

http://profiles.google.com/kdsandeep Sandeep Deshpande

who is this fraud Needham ? looks like a PR stunt by Apple

http://twitter.com/snookasnoo Idon’t Know

I’m sure you would like to believe that but unfortunately for you the numbers don’t lie. Now go install your Android malware scanner over the carrier bloatware.
GKhan

LOL, “Needham & Company, LLC is a boutique investment banking firm that provides financial advisory services”. I wonder what vested interest they have in AAPL stock.
Anonymous

If that’s the case, then you also have to discount their graph which shows Android skyrocketing to 50% market share. You can’t have it both ways.

Anonymous

Google should start making manufacturers put the little Andoird guy icon on the back of all the phones.

http://twitter.com/snookasnoo Idon’t Know

Yeah that would solve everything. heh. heheh.

Anonymous

Analysts gonna analyze.

I expect at least 70 comments of nerd rage on here.
Anonymous

Yes the stop gap android phones have lost their appeal. Because of contracts the iPhone takeover was not as quick as many expected but it’s over people. Bye bye shitty android phone. Hello iPhone. True story.

http://twitter.com/bradleyjp Bradley Petrik

It’s likely going to play out as everyone expected: once contracts expired and people could buy a new phone at contract price they’ll switch to the iPhone.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=509661323 Jean Robert Marc

LOL so explain why the iphone market share is dipping on ATT
Anonymous

Because ATT iPhone users switched to Verizon..duh.

Eric Walker

That’s awesome, I love the android fanboys that hate Apple just because they’ve never used an iPhone.

(I realize there are some out there that have had an iPhone and prefer Android, I am not talking about you. I am talking about 95% of the others on here that base Apple)

http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/VCBEBTYM2XLKT7WBH4OWJ5QUZ4 commonsenseplease

I like being able to choose hardware forms.
Seeing hundreds of other people with the same phone kind of kills the ‘exclusive’ factor, and I don’t like small screens.
Carlos5555593

Oh come on man.ios is shit.i’ve had the iphone 3gs and the iphone 4 and android phones have far more funtionalities.

Anonymous

I like android and I have a TB. I owned a vip4 before that and thought it was a great device. LTE, voice integration, and google maps brought me back to android. If Apple can work out voice integration and offers a better maps program, along with a device with a bigger screen I could see myself switching to the iphone again. I don’t like rooting and want a device with good battery life, that just works.
Anonymous

Android market share will drop to it’s 2007 level within 3 years. True story.

Anonymous

Just like that cherry your Mamma’ dropped!

True story.

Oh, excuse me……. rotten cherry.

Truer Story, for real.

Anonymous

Papi!!! Whuddup dumbass? Once again ur joke sucks. I’m all for a good
zinger but cherry drop? Fucks that even sappose to mean? U implying
she’s a virgin? A mother is a virgin? Not good bud. Confusing.
Perhaps u should stick to scraping ur daughters teeth for cumback(s)
true story.
Paul

If your mother’s a virgin that makes you Jesus. Congrats.
Anonymous

Scroat is funny, papinyc is not. True story.
Zac Caslin

Youn can tell your an android fanboy, you just copy everybody elts. Good job sausage tits I’m sure you make all the fandroids happy.

Anonymous

Apple ios 44% market share…android 28%. True story.

Anonymous

Preaching to the choir here! I believe! Halalujah!! Praise SJ!! true story™©®

http://twitter.com/antonis_tsagari Antonis Tsagaris

But… but.. but.. in the rest of the world where the iPhone and Android phones are on all carriers, Android still dominates. This “analysis” couldn’t be… bullshit – could it?!?!

Now seriously guys, I thought Android was dead and done when the iPhone 4 got on Verizon. Now it’s “when iPhone 5 gets on Verizon”. What next? “When it gets on Verizon and gets widgets (that will of course be done right, none of this Android wrongness) it will destroy Android – just wait and see. I want my mommy”.

Expect to be proven wrong. Again. (to borrow an irritating Apple-ism).

Anonymous

Apple can’t compete with Android phones on the two most important metrics; choice and price. There is going to be more and more Android phones and they will get cheaper and cheaper.

Zac Caslin

How do you go cheaper than free.
Anonymous

You can give them away, like Motorola is doing, but then they won’t be around for much longer. A race to the bottom.
http://twitter.com/trick202 Rich Fletcher

I’m glad about that.

You don’t see Omega making a cheap watch for the masses.

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

If you thought the iPhone 4 on Verizon was going to change the time you were being stupid. An 8 month old phone on a network with a lot of devices weren’t going to immediately change it. What’s going to change it is the iPhone and a launch on another carrier. Remember Android launches many devices on every carrier from Verizon to Boost mobile. But in the future that share will decline. BUT their number of subscribers will go up because the market will grow.

Anonymous

Android is still #1 !!!!!!
You iBoyz need to either go back to school; get the G.E.D. you seemingly lack; or, take a reading comprehension class.

Remember, R.I.F. ????
(Reading Is Fundamental)

Michael Scrip

Android is #1… and that’s great for Google and Google alone.

Samsung only sold 10 million Android smartphones last quarter… while Apple sold 18 million iPhones.

When Samsung gives their quarterly results… do they bring up HTC, Motorola and LG and combine ALL their Android phones? No.

The truth is… the individual manufacturers who make Android phones still can’t outsell the boring, grid of icons iPhone. Kinda sad really…

But yeah… Google’s Android OS is on a lot of phones… so good for Google.

http://twitter.com/starnovsky Stan Tarnovsky

I think Samsung can’t outsell Apple simply because they competing with other Android OEMs (like HTC, etc). So if somebody wants to buy an Android phone they have a choice between a doesen of phones and a few OEMs. Apple on the other hand doesn’t compete with anybody in iOS devices.
So it’s not correct to compare individual OEMs – competition is not fair.
But it’s possible to compare mobile OSes withing the same carrier, of course (iOS is not available from all carriers in US).
And then any particular OS will outsell others for the same carrier, it will be the clear winner.
It would be interesting to compare sales of iOS and Andropid devices for AT&T and Verizon where the playing field is leveled.
Michael Scrip

— “But it’s possible to compare mobile OSes withing the same carrier, of course (iOS is not available from all carriers in US). And then any particular OS will outsell others for the same carrier, it will be the clear winner.”

Winner? I dunno… marketshare is only one piece of the puzzle.

No company gets into business to get marketshare in lieu of making money.

As long as Apple keeps selling hardware… they will be far from a “loser”
Michael Scrip

— “But it’s possible to compare mobile OSes withing the same carrier, of course (iOS is not available from all carriers in US). And then any particular OS will outsell others for the same carrier, it will be the clear winner.”

Winner? I dunno… marketshare is only one piece of the puzzle.

No company gets into business to get marketshare in lieu of making money.

As long as Apple keeps selling hardware… they will be far from a “loser”
http://twitter.com/starnovsky Stan Tarnovsky

Michael Scrip – “Not a winner” in the market share of course doesn’t translates to the “looser”. Especially in monetary terms. Apple is probably making the most money of them all in mobile devices sales. However, the OS market share is important in a long run to keep the ecosystem alive and well developing.
http://twitter.com/starnovsky Stan Tarnovsky

Michael Scrip – “Not a winner” in the market share of course doesn’t translates to the “looser”. Especially in monetary terms. Apple is probably making the most money of them all in mobile devices sales. However, the OS market share is important in a long run to keep the ecosystem alive and well developing.

Anonymous

Oh the gloating… But seriously, does ANYONE think that Android share would just keep going up? lol Objectively speaking there was bound to be a time when it stopped going up and flattens… But hey, I will take 50%…
Just a quick note… On almost every country in this world except the US, the Iphone is already sold on every carrier… And yet, i know, I know, hard to believe that the majority of people in those countries still DO NOT buy an iPhone…

Anonymous

Mainly because they don’t use tAmpons; just cheese cloth, instead.
Anonymous

Because it literally is just going up. Apple did not gain market share against Android. There is at least 5 studies showing an increase for the time frame the Needham analysts “believes” Apple made market share inroads.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=509661323 Jean Robert Marc

trolls will keep trolling

Anonymous

In most countries iPhones cost significantly more than Android phones. People buy what’s cheap, not what’s best.

Anonymous

This is only news if you were stupid enough to think that iPhone exclusivity didn’t result in a material percentage of Android share.

http://www.droiddoes.com/ iNorm

Well people are stupid. Stupid for thinking I actually prefer android and stupid for liking something that is half-baked.

Bringit

word.

Anonymous

Angry Fandroids get even angrier. (If that’s even possible…)

Expect the noise from the annoying Android Brigade to get even louder.
Anonymous

This is complete BS. Why even post something based on what an analyst “believes” happened? There is actual data and the analyst is WRONG.

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

You’d believe it if it was favorable to Android. Hypocrite.

Anonymous

You’re a fool because you know nothing about me yet make character assessments. Actually, I would believe it if it was supported by data. Not only is it NOT supported by data, there are at least five studies directly disputing the claims made by this analyst.

You believe it because it is what you want to believe. Don’t judge me based on your own weakness in critical thinking.
Anonymous

its quite easy to judge you, I would say you are about 14/15, incredibly nerdy, and gets bullied a lot at school, so is understandably insecure. Also has trust issues because you got abused by your dad when you were a kid. SO you feel you need to come on here and troll just to vindicate your pathetic life. Not bad eh?
Anonymous

Of course it is incredibly easy for you to judge me despite the fact you
know nothing about me; you lack critical thinking skills.

http://twitter.com/setsocialdotcom SetSocial

I think the iPhone and Android will continue to be the dominant players that trade 1st and 2nd place for quite some time.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_JNKVTT7PJMXPYP2GVCIERBQQCU Andrew

That’s because the iPhone on Verizon is helping that out. Even though it’s an older device a lot of people are still buying them because they 1) Can’t wait for the new one 2) Don’t care about the new one 2) Don’t know about the new. When iPhone drops on all 4 carriers they will easily overtake Android in market share. It won’t even be a question.

Anonymous

Or, just maybe, they are switching from their iPhone on AT&T because they didn’t like the number of dropped calls on that network? I mean, we know AT&T had a significant loss of iPhone customers when iPhone for Verizon was announced but why let actual data ruin a perfectly incoherent (and emotional) argument, right?

iPhone can’t compete with Android on choice and price. Some people will not buy iPhones because they want features simply not offered (like a physical key board, navigation, voice control etc). Still, a much larger percentage will not buy iPhones because it is simply too expensive. It is the reason people buy Dell laptops over Apple Macbooks. People are honestly naive if they believe Apple market share will increase relative to Android.
Tim242

Really? Why hasn’t this happened anywhere else in the world? Both are available worldwide, yet Android is still king. Everybody said when Verizon got the i*hone, it was over for Android. That didn’t happen. Now, you think ittle Sprint and Tmo will make it happen? You iFools are delusional.

BurleyShells

andriod is 3rd in canada
Tim242

Is that all you got? One sparsely populated country where RIM is
headquartered?
Anonymous

Cuzz they selling and giving away cheap ass android phones. Don’t bullshit yourself. If apple is 20%? of the smartphone market world wide but raking in 50-60% of the profits that’s indisputable proof. True story™©®
Tim242

They are making that much profit because sales people get no commission from
att or vzw. You call Android phones cheap, yet sales people make a lot of
commission from Android phones. Apple is just greedy.
Anonymous

Lol sure. Again with the commissions bullshit. What about rim? I know
they ain’t android but they sold 13 million phones but made only 700
mill. 18 million for apple 3 billion made. So u r saying for selling
blackberry’s the sales people made 1.5 – 2 billion in commissions?
Hahaha. Yeah right. More like they sold cheap ass phones like the
curve. Just like android is selling cheap ass phones and bogo deals.
True story™©®
Tim242

RIM is just dying. It’s really a shame.

Anonymous

Umm am i the only one that read what Verizon is going to do on July 7th. You really think Verizon will help the cause? They are raising their rates to crazy amounts. Android is everywhere on almost every carrier. Even non month to month carriers.

Migration? WTH is this talking about. iOS 5 is the same as iOS4 but they fixed the notification. When Ice Cream Sand. comes out he will change his tune.

Zac Caslin

Just like gingerbread and Honeycomb right. The next one will fix everything line is getting old. Find a new one.

Anonymous

Just like iOS5 fixed notifications. Yeah…everybody Sh*t smells. How is this new? Verizon plans just leaked yesterday.

His story had holes, IF you ever taking a STATS course you will know that one can make numbers look like anything you want. AAANNNDDD of course you will see a spike in sales its a new iphone fall is dead period until black firday AAANDD people will need to upgrade the older iphones most possibly 3GS owners.

Anonymous

And this is with a 11 month old phone and the iPhone 5 isn’t even out yet. Heck, the iPhone isn’t even out on all carriers in the US yet.

Oh boy, the iPhone 5 is going to make Android its bish :D

Carlos5555593

Really??? And they are now even copying android. Do your research. And lookout because google nezus prime is coming to all carriers. Yeah the nezus prime the phone that will launch with android 4.0 or icecream as you would call it. And the best news is that it is coming with an spec sheet that no iphone 5 could brake.

Max

LMAO. Blackberry tanking. Even tech lackwits can’t keep it afloat.
http://daveysmind.tumblr.com David M.D.

This is odd to me. This chart matches nothing shown from IDC before. Not to mention, there is NO source leading to IDC directly to show this.

This seems to be an analyst’s take on what he WANTS to happen. Not what actually is. But eh…nice of him to do what he gets paid to do so horribly.

http://twitter.com/rkein87 Rob Kein

I agree, I would like to see a side-by-side comparison. This doesn’t tie out.

http://daveysmind.tumblr.com David M.D.

It’s just funny…IDC’s own charts showed Android rising along with iOS. Yet this shows Android dipping…

It’s a lie. It’s a farce. It’s a trap (in my best Admiral Ackbar voice).

Anonymous

To listen to the Apple lemmings you would think that the iPhony would be taking over the planet tomorrow. What utter crap. It is on Verizon now and yes there was an upswing due to that. Yes the “faithful” ie zealot nutbags will be upgrading at the next version since they do whatever Apple tells them to. Longterm though, Android will continue to chip away at Capple’s market share just like it has been doing. Even the lemmings will figure this out eventually.
HeCareth M. Wosu

This article basically shows that the analyst does not know stats. In the past 2.5 years Apple has not managed to get pass 30% market share. Honestly hey the iPhone is a nice phone but its lack of choice and customization will always leave it in second place. With iPhone 5 coming out Apple may get a 2 – 5% Bump once all the dust has settled, but don’t expect anything else. The world markets have already proven this. Additionally, everyone should know that Apple and Android are not taking market share from each other. They are trying to take the most market share from Blackberry. Another good reason for the bump is probably because Apple owns 80%+ of the tablet market which many times are added to the total analysis (But I could be wrong). Android market share will flat line just like the iPhone market share did and it seems like it will stay steady between 45 – 50% , I think Apple will be steady between 35 – 40%, after they have obliterated Blackberry.

A final note which many people don’t understand is that Google took the Microsoft method of competing with Apple, by offering a highly customizable product on hundreds of devices. This is the same method Microsoft used back in the 80s to surpass Apple’s market share in personal computing devices. In the end they will go back and fourth jabbing and taken features from each other, which will just give us more options and a better smartphone experience. Apple FanBoys will defend Apple to their graves, and Droid Fan will continuously lament about how the Android is better, but its all preference.

By the way BGR your blog should be called the Apple FanBoy Report…really, Engadget gives much better tech insights than your blog does.
Joe Striker

I think this is good no matter which system that you use. It means that the competition is heating up between the two systems, which will make them both better. Sure, it cost’s more for Apple and Google, but so what. I want a better, cheaper device! It’s all about ME!

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