EXCLUSIVE: On the day that the Apple iPad has gone on sale in Australia, Telstra executives have admitted that Google Android based smartphones are now outselling the Apple iPhone on their Next G network.
Backing up the claims at the recent launch of the HTC Legend, which runs on Google Android OS HTC Country Manager, Anthony Petts, who’s Company, sells the HTC Desire, Hero and of late the new HTC Legend said that he was aware of the claims.
“We’ve had record sales of the HTC Desire as well as the Windows Mobile based HD2. It does not surprise me that Android based smartphones are starting to outsell the iPhone”.
Ross Fielding the Director of Mobile at Telstra did admit that in recent week Android sales had been “50/50”.
“We’ve had excellent sales of both the iPhone and Android based phones which are growing in popularity. The Desire is selling extremely well”.
Another executive who did not want to be named said “This month Android based phones have outsold the iPhone and as more vendors launch Android based devices we believe this trend will continue”.
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According to global research Company Gartner, worldwide quarterly sales of Android based Smartphone’s jumped from 1.6 percent in the first quarter of 2009 to 9.6 percent during the same period this year.
In the first quarter of 2010, Android phones outsold the iPhone in the US by a significant margin. According to research group NPF Android sales accounted for 28% of the market, while the iPhone had 21% share.
According to a Telstra source Apple is a difficult Company to deal with the US Company dictating terms and conditions which in most cases benefit Apple and not the carrier. As a result Companies like Telstra and Vodafone are more likely to push Android devices when developing marketing and promotion campaigns due to the higher level of margin that they make from selling an Android based device.
Ross Rubin, executive director of industry analysis for NPD, said “Very soon Apple is going to find that they are competing against a lot of phone vendors who are delivering Smartphone’s based on the Android platform. The launch of Android 2.2 will accelerate this. At the same time most music and movie Companies are cutting deals to deliver content to the Android platform. Also supporting Android will be application developers whose software can be downloaded to both Smartphone and tablet devices running on the Android OS”.
