Phones running the Android operating system are proving extremely popular claims Nielsen Research who is also tipping that Android will shortly overtake Apple and their iPhone. Meanwhile a UK research group is claiming that Android sales have grown 886%.
“There’s a massive hunger for smartphones, and the Android universe came out not just with one blockbuster device but with a whole series of blockbuster devices,” Roger Entner, head of telecom research at Nielsen, said.
Shipments of Google’s Android mobile operating system have rocketed in the last year, according to research group Canalys who said that shipments have increased 886% year-on-year from the second quarter of 2009.
Apple showed the second largest growth in the smartphone sector with 61% growth in the same period.
Overall, the smartphone sector grew by 64% from the second quarter 2009 to the second quarter 2010, the research says.
Pete Cunningham, an analyst at Canalys, said Android’s sales were in part due to recent launches of “highly compelling” phones.
“We’re really seeing major vendors getting behind the platform,” he said. In particular, he said, large manufacturers such as HTC, Samsung and Sony Ericsson, all used the platform and had helped drive shipments.
In turn, said Mr Cunningham, shipments would mean sales and market share.”Typically over a year, the two pretty much balance out,” he said.
Recently, ChannelNews was told that Android powered devices, in particular the HTC Desire, was outselling the Apple iPhone at Telstra. We have also been told that the Samsung Galaxy S which is currently on the Optus network is proving highly popular.
BusinessWeek said that Android’s success may mean Google will overtake Apple’s iOS globally earlier than previously expected, said Will Stofega, program director at research firm IDC. Earlier this year, IDC said it expected Android to overtake Apple’s iOS globally in 2011.
“It could happen sooner,” Stofega said.
Helping Google to get share with their Android operating system is a failure by Microsoft to deliver on the Windows Mobile 7 OS which is not due into the market till September 2010 say analysts. Its share fell to 11 per cent last quarter from 20 per cent a year earlier, according to Nielsen.
RIM’s BlackBerry operating system commanded 35 per cent of the overall smartphone market. Still, among the group of newcomers to smartphones, BlackBerry’s market share dropped to 33 per cent from 45 per cent a year earlier, Nielsen said.
Microsoft is trying to revive demand for its mobile software with the release of Windows Phone 7 this year. RIM tomorrow may introduce a new version of its software, BlackBerry 6, Shaw Wu, an analyst at Kaufman Bros., wrote in a research note.
BusinessWeek said that some of the decline in popularity for the Apple operating system may have come as consumers put off purchases before the June introduction of the iPhone 4, Entner said. Apple may regain share in the third quarter, he said.
