Android, iOS gain U.S. market share in Q2 while BlackBerry slides, NPD says

Android’s lead in the U.S. smartphone market was extended further in the second quarter of 2011 according to leading market research firm The NPD Group. The firm on Monday released its second-quarter Mobile Phone Track report, which shows that Android devices accounted for 52% of smartphones sold in the U.S. last quarter. Apple’s iOS-powered iPhone showed slight gains in the second quarter as well, representing 29% of smartphone sales. RIM’s BlackBerry platform slid in the quarter according to NPD, dropping to an 11% share of the U.S. smartphone market, while Windows Phone 7, Windows Mobile and webOS sales were flat at less than 5% each. NPD also believes that Google’s planned acquisition of Motorola Mobility will not deter its major Android partners, as some have speculated. “Google’s acquisition of Motorola shifts the balance of power in the handset-patent conflict between Google and its operating system competitors,” said Ross Rubin, The NPD Group’s executive director of industry analysis, in a statement. “Android’s momentum has made for a large pie that is attractive to Motorola’s Android rivals, even if they must compete with their operating system developer.” NPD’s full press release follows below.

The NPD Group: As Android Solidifies Lead, Google Acquisition Has Potential to Revitalize Flagging Motorola
Patent-rich handset pioneer’s second quarter share fell to gains by Apple, Samsung and LG.
PORT WASHINGTON, NEW YORK, August TK, 2011 – According to The NPD Group, a leading market research company, Google’s Android operating system (OS) continued to dominate U.S. smartphone market share, accounting for 52 percent of units sold in the second quarter (Q2) of 2011. Like Android, Apple’s iPhone OS (iOS) experienced slight quarterly gain rising to 29 percent in Q2; however, BlackBerry OS share fell to 11 percent, as Windows Phone 7, Windows Mobile, and webOS held steady at less than five percent of the market each.
“Google’s acquisition of Motorola shifts the balance of power in the handset-patent conflict between Google and its operating system competitors,” said Ross Rubin, executive director of industry analysis for NPD. “Android’s momentum has made for a large pie that is attractive to Motorola’s Android rivals, even if they must compete with their operating system developer.”
Motorola’s overall mobile phone market share declined 3 percentage points, from 12 percent in Q2 2010 to 9 percent in Q2 2011. The company’s share of the smartphone market also declined from 15 percent to 12 percent. Motorola’s year-over-year unit share of Android OS sales halved from 44 percent in Q2 of last year to 22 percent in Q2 of 2011, as Samsung and LG both experienced substantial gains.
“Much as it did in the feature phone market in the RAZR era, Motorola is experiencing increased competition from Samsung and LG in the smartphone market,” Rubin said. “Closer ties to the heart of Android can help inspire new paths to differentiation.”
Growing opportunity in prepaid smartphones
Beyond the four largest national carriers, Motorola can also make up ground in the rapidly growing pre-paid smartphone market. Based on the latest information from NPD’s “Mobile Phone Track,” one in five new handsets acquired in Q2 was on a prepaid plan, and carriers offering prepaid mobile phones continued to grow their smartphone portfolios. In Q2 2010 just 8 percent of prepaid phones were smartphones, but in Q2 2011 that number jumped to 22 percent.
“Android is also leading the charge in the rapidly growing prepaid smartphone market,” Rubin said. “This was once a key segment for Motorola that the company has an opportunity to reclaim as prepaid carriers build their smartphone portfolios.”

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Photovine Launches on iOS: Why not Android?

It’s that time again, ladies and gentlemen, time when we’ve got to ask Google what the heck is going on, this time regarding a pretty awesome little social photography app by the name of Photovine. I just happen to have an iPad here, so I went ahead and checked the app out for all you non-adventurous types. Of course I was still working on the tiny iPhone-sized interface unless I wanted to have a pixel nightmare in front of me, so it was slim pickins for screen real-estate. Even so, Google’s excellent new app Photovine’s sweet nature shown through, and it’s gotten me wondering why the heck it wasn’t launched on Android instead of iOS.

Now there’s no way (or is there?) in the world Google isn’t going to be pushing this app to Android eventually, but the question remains: why start with iOS and not give its own mobile OS any love? This app connects you with friends across the universe via Vines – each Vine is a word or phrase, each photo added to a vine should have something to do with said word or phrase. Of course you can guess that there will be some loopholes and very possible inappropriateness going on in the future more than likely, but for now everything remains cute.



Google! How could you?! We want this super fun to use simple, neat, great, nice app for Android too! At least you’ve got to consider bringing it over to Android sooner than later. We don’t want to be late to the party! Meanwhile we’ll have to (SHHH) break out our significant other’s iPad or iPhone (perish the thought) to take a look while we wait.
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Hunch survey looks at the differences between users of Android and iOS

A survey was posted recently that was conducted by Hunch and apparently had about 80 million responses. The survey looked at some of the differences between users that are on Android and those on iOS. The survey raised some interesting and odd facts about the users.

Android users are more likely to be male, but that was revealed before. The survey found that Android users are 71% more likely to have never traveled out of their home country. The users of iOS by contrast are 50% more likely to have visited five foreign countries or more. Android users are 17% more likely to live in the suburbs. The survey also found that 80% of Android users are likely to have only a high school diploma while iPhone users are 37% more likely to have graduate degrees.
A survey of incomes found that Android users are more likely to have incomes in the $50k to $100k range with iOS users 67% more likely to have an annual income of $200,000 or more. I wonder if some of the difference between users of iOS and iPhones work out to age differences. Younger Android users would be more likely to have less income and to not have traveled.
[via SlashGear]

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