iPhone The Top Selling Handset, But Android The Top OS in US Smartphone Market

Submitted by lalit on November 3, 2010 - 4:11pm.

In past few days, market research firms NPD and Canalys have posted smartphone market share data highlighting Android’s growth as OS leader and iPhone 4’s dominance as top selling handset. Both Google and Apple gained, as RIM lost its smartphone market share.

According to NPD Group, Android OS captured 44 percent smartphone market share, iOS remained steady at 23 percent, whereas RIM dropped to third position with 22 percent in Q3 2010 for US. The top five selling phones were ranked as follows Apple iPhone 4, Blackberry Curve 8500 series, LG Cosmos, Motorola Droid X and HTC EVO 4G. Apple’s iPhone 4 was leading the pack by a factor of 3, as Apple sold 5 million iPhones in Q3 2010 compared to 1.7 million Blackberry Curve 8500 handsets sold in US, which was in second place.

Though the data provided by Canalys was slightly different from NPD, but the overall results were same. The data showed that Open Handset Alliance (OHA) or Android has 43.6 percent market share (9.1 million devices) followed by Apple with 26.2 percent (5.5 million) and RIM with 24.2 percent (5.1 million) for Q3 2010 in US. According to Canalys data, Symbian was still the number one smartphone OS followed by Android with 20 million units and Apple’s iOS with 15 million units.

Data can be analyzed in many different ways, but three things are very clear from the above results for Q3 2010.

  1. Android is growing very fast in US (as 50% of Android handsets are still sold in US), and developing countries where price is a big factor. For example in India, you can get an Android handset for less than Rs. 20,000 ($450), whereas iPhone 4 is priced Rs. 45,000 ($1,015).
  2. iPhone 4 is the number one selling smartphone in the world and in European countries, where iPhone is available on multiple carriers, iOS is leading the market also.
  3. In US, AT&T exclusivity is strangling iPhone growth. Over 80 percent of all smartphones sold on AT&T are iPhones and there is very little room left for growth in US, until Apple brings the iPhone to other carriers like Verizon.