“Android saw its first real decline in US share last month, Nielsen discovered in its latest smartphone use breakdown,” Electronista reports. “Google’s OS dropped in share for the first time in recent memory, down one point from March to 36 percent. The iPhone and BlackBerry were also largely near their earlier levels at 26 percent for Apple’s devices (down one point) and 23 percent (up one).”
“Some of the shift was triggered by demographics that also revealed the low current share for Windows Phone 7,” Electronista reports. “Although it has almost entirely replaced Windows Mobile on shelves, Windows Phone 7 had just one percent of the field and was tied with the defunct Palm OS for share.”
Electronista reports, “The stasis wasn’t directly explained but corroborated NPD data that showed a slight drop in market share in the early spring. Most have attributed the slowdowns to the introduction of the Verizon iPhone. The second US carrier activated 2.2 million iPhones and may have blunted Android’s growth by giving an option to those who wanted an iPhone but had refused to switch to AT&T. Apple’s presence also took away Verizon’s previously undivided attention to Android marketing.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: First, apply the brakes before changing direction.
Related article:
NPD: Apple iPhone 4 for Verizon best-selling mobile phone in U.S.; causes Android to lose share for first time since Q209 – April 28, 2011
You mean …They quit giving crappy droids for free?
And, again, this does not include iPod touches and iPads, so real OS share percentages are much more even between iOS and Android (it leads, but by far not 50% as in smartphone-only chart).
Also, many of Android smartphones are dumb smartphones, with 400×240, 320×240 resolusions and no access to AppMarket. Not really fair to compare as a platform.
Highly agree. It would also be good to note that while android shows a bigger percentage, it is fragmented between different carriers and PC companies trying to get into the market with their crappy dummy phone and some not so smart phones.
just my 2c.
Yeah, the iPhone share does not match my observation. Out and around in numerous environments with lots of people, the clear majority are wielding an iPhone. Either I live in some kind of Apple micro-climate, or there is something wrong with these numbers.
It’s possible (and I think it’s been verified) that iPhone users actually use their phones a lot more, so naturally we’d see them out of people’s pockets, where Android users might be harder to spot as they are no doubt a little embarrassed to even be seen with one.
You live in a microcosm. Android is VERY popular all over the world. But don’t ask me why. Most of the Android users I know are techies and love to fiddle with their phone (as an iPhone 4 owner, I do envy them that: I’d love to be able to change the phone, iPod and Notes icons as I had done on my jailbroken original iPhone).
Anyway, there are a lot of people out there who hate Apple (because they hate being cool or feel Apple is too controlling) or they simply don’t know enough (a good salesman can pitch an Android phone “feature for feature” knowing full well that it’s not “what” but “how” a phone works- and there’s NOTHING that touches the ease of use of an iPhone).
Still, I’m an optimist. Maybe they’ll learn one day. In the meantime, we all enjoy our iOS devices…
Exactly. The money, for Apple, is in all those hardware devices. Lookup profit share.
Nor should iPod touches or iPads be included. The survey was about smartphone market share, not OS market share.
But thats impossible, Android wins cause it does flash! What more could you ever need or ask for
“…flash! What more could you ever need or ask for[?]”
A sense of humor as good as yours. Thanks for making my day!
Now Apple will provide us with the iPhone 5. We will then crush the rebellion with one swift stroke.
Have you forgotten to breathe loudly through your face mask?
LOL! But the iPhone is not the evil empire. That would be Android.
We replaced my wife’s <1 yr. old Droid Incredible with an iPhone 4 a few weeks ago. I bet she is not a unique case.
Good ol’ MacDailyNews distorting the news again. iOS and Android BOTH dropped 1% in marketshare according to this report, yet MDN only points the finger at Android. It is this sort of biased, fictitious reporting from MDN which has made me remove MDN from my RSS feed, and I will rarely come back here and visit again. I’m looking for REAL news, not SENSATIONALIZED or FICTIONALIZED news.
MacBill, you misread read MDN’s take, which does state that Apple’s share slipped 1%. In the wake of the several quarters of rising Android share and the release of the Verizon iPhone, the drop in Android share is the most significant news in this story, and thus, does merit the headline.
I’m not sure how long you’ve been here at MDN, but if you spent any time at all (say, three days), you would have clearly known that this is a site that reports news related to Apple with a forceful Apple spin. Vast majority of us come here for THAT precise reason (otherwise, we’d be getting our news at many other Apple-centric sites that don’t spin so wildly).
Most of us are NOT looking at MDN for the kind of news you seem to be looking for. We enjoy MDN’s spin, and I’m sure, most are intelligent enough to also uncover the news, if they need to, from within that spin.
That’s right!
Frankly I’m disappointed when there is no acerbic MDN Take™ in response to a article.
Predrag is absolutely right!! so is Huyo!!
If you want unbiased Apple news go to Thurrott’s Winsite or ZDnet.
So Apple was down 1% also, RIM up 1%, but those are dismissed as statistical noise?
I’ll wait for documentation of significant changes before jumping to conclusions
I like crispy fries with OK Sauce.
@derss theres android phones without access to the app market?
As I have mentioned before. Only a moron would choose Android if privacy, security and quality is a priority. If you don’t care, then by by all means go buy thar POS wannabe iPhone and enjoy you ad laden world while your data is shared by all!
RIM is up, Android and Apple are down but more significant is that HP WebOS has twice the market share of Windows phone 7. When do you hear anything about HP WebOS? After all the marketing of Windows phone 7 it’s getting beaten by a platform that has little to no marketing.