
Apple up, Android flat in smartphone growth - thisisblurry
http://www.loopinsight.com/2011/06/30/apple-up-android-flat-in-smartphone-growth/
======
manthizzle
Nielson's data: [http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/online_mobile/in-us-
smar...](http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/online_mobile/in-us-smartphones-
now-majority-of-new-cellphone-purchases/)

Nielson's analysis is equally bad. FTA, "Android share of recent acquirers
flattened in 2011; Apple is now driving smartphone growth." This is simply not
true. Android is still grabbing the largest portion of new smartphone users.

~~~
imperialWicket
The analysis and wording are misleading, but I find it hard to believe that no
one identifies the Verizon iPhone launch as a motivator for these numbers.
There's a clear stall in new smartphone user iPhone purchases that starts
right after WSJ announced the Verizon iPhone launch. There's also a clear
spike when the Verizon iPhone launch occurred.

I guess you could say Apple's departments handling marketing and Verizon
launch details are driving smartphone adoption.

------
sudont
This: <http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/?p=28237>

Is a lot more helpful. There's still a lot of market to cover, so it's not
like iOS and Android are cannibalizing each others sales yet.

~~~
miahi
The difference between the titles is very interesting: "Apple up, Android flat
in smartphone growth" vs the original "_In US_, Smartphones Now Majority of
New Cellphone Purchases". Yes, the US market is big, but not the only one.
[http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2011/06/andy-
rubin-500000-and...](http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2011/06/andy-
rubin-500000-android-activations-daily/)

~~~
kenjackson
The big story, IMO, looking at the charts is that smartphone growth all-up
stalled (flat between Q1 and Q2). Maybe the first Q2Q stall in growth in
years.

I'd like to know why people aren't getting smartphones? Is the cost of the
data plans? If so, I think we may see growth in this market segment slow down
a lot faster than some people expect.

~~~
micampe
I think that's because they are selling them as pocket computers, and a lot of
people don't care about having another computer. Those who did already got
them.

~~~
gnaffle
Actually, my experience is that a lot of people are getting smartphones that
hate their computer and rarely use it, and just want a good phone.

My mother got an iPhone, not because she wanted lots of apps, but because the
user interface was simple enough to understand and use for making phone calls,
and because she never figured out the T9 stuff. I was quite surprised when I
discovered that she'd figured out how to use Safari on her own.

Some other friends got an iPhone after buying and iPod touch for watching
videos and listening to music while commuting, and gradually discovered that
it was pointless carrying around two devices.

So the potential market is very big IMO, and only limited to how far down the
price can be pushed. Of course, there will always be a big market for
"non"-smartphones, as these will get cheaper as well and reach even more
people.

------
rabidsnail
The number I care about (which I haven't been able to find, not that I looked
very hard) is how many unique (per user) app installations there were per
month for each platform. The number of users is only useful if users of all
platforms install apps at the same rate, which my intuition says is not true.

Many android phones are sold as "the nice phone that you can get with your
2-year contract" as opposed to an item that the owner sought out explicitly,
so they're less likely to explore the full potential of the device.

------
protomyth
It will be interesting to see what happens on the next iPhone refresh. AT&T is
offering the 3gs for "free" with a 2 year contract. If Apple has a replacement
that can fit that slot for both AT&T and Verizon, then it will probably do
some significant things to the iPhone market share (and seriously accelerate
the iPod lines decreasing numbers).

~~~
bryanlarsen
Yes, that's definitely the sweet spot. It's hard for Android to sell "cheaper
than free". ("free" is far from "free", but it sounds good).

In Canada where the rule is 3 year contracts (and thus free is even more
expensive than in the States), I've seen low-end Androids for $0 with 3 year
contract, no data plan required and 2 phones + a PS3 for 2 three year
contracts.

~~~
shinratdr
> In Canada where the rule is 3 year contracts (and thus free is even more
> expensive than in the States), I've seen low-end Androids for $0 with 3 year
> contract, no data plan required and 2 phones + a PS3 for 2 three year
> contracts.

True, but Canada has a strangely high iOS adoption rate and carriers are just
doing whatever the hell they can to increase that existing 9% of Canadian
smartphone users that own Androids. I think it's because they can negotiate
better with the individual Android device makers than they can negotiate with
Apple or even RIM.

------
shinratdr
Smartphone statistics are pretty unhelpful when it comes to evaluating iOS
because they don't factor in the 100+ million iPads & iPod touches out there.
It helps to remember this when reading arguments about the App Store & the
Android Market, because it's often forgotten or dismissed.

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immortalbeast
i like Android. Sprint and T-Mobile are already swamped with Android phones.
There's no room for growth there. the iPhone is already the best selling
smartphone on Verizon after only 4-5 months.
[http://allthingsd.com/20110622/whats-the-top-selling-
phone-a...](http://allthingsd.com/20110622/whats-the-top-selling-phone-at-
verizon-and-att/)

Android should go after AT&T fast.

~~~
RainFlutter
Well of course it's the best selling phone. Apple bets the entire platform on
a single phone; Android has a panoply of options competing against each other.
If the iPhone were being consistently outsold by any one of the various
Android models, that would be a sign that something was going seriously wrong
for Apple.

That article merely demonstrates that statistics will tell you anything.

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gamble
I could tell that Android's growth had stalled when people stopped posting
nigh-weekly updates of Android's market share on HN.

------
barista
Apple up, Android flat and Microsoft Nowhere in smartphone growth.

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shareme
seems somewhat false..went form 450,000 daily activations in May to 500,000
daily activations in June daily..

~~~
glhaynes
My understanding is that that rate does not exceed the overall growth of the
market, though. So Android activations are growing in absolute numbers, but
their portion of "all smartphones sold" is not.

