NPD just published its latest plotting of the nice American smartphone OS rivalry, and although the report covers annual as opposed to quarterly trends, it’s perhaps more interesting to carry it up against the former set of figures we saw — those for Q2 2011 . Back then, Google’s OS had a 52 percent share, but these new figures suggest a touch better performance of 53 percent between January and October. Meanwhile, iOS’s 29 percent share is similar to what we saw in Q2, hinting that its growth has slowed right down or perhaps stopped. RIM’s share of the pie is 10 percent, in comparison with 11 percent in Q2, showing that the Summer flurry of latest BB7 handsets just like the Bold 9930 and Torch 9810 had little immediate impact. WP7 obstinately refuses to overhaul Windows Mobile, although these figures are pre- Titan , while the doomed Symbian and webOS are barely clinging to life. Other than all that, perhaps the sole stats which are genuinely still shocking are those on the top of the column for 2006. Click below for further detail’s in NPD’s press release.
As Android and Apple continue to dominate the U.S. smartphone market, RIM and other smartphone manufacturers have made moves to reclaim lost market share.
PORT WASHINGTON, THE BIG APPLE, December 13, 2011 – Consistent with The NPD Group, a number one market research company, Android’s operating system (OS) share of smartphone sales grew to command greater than 1/2 the U.S. smartphone market (53 percent) from January through October 2011, as Apple’s iOS share grew to succeed in 29 percent of the market, and RIM’s OS share declined to 11 percent. RIM and other companies that were formerly on top of NPD’s smartphone rankings, however, have made critical business decisions this past year in a quest to shore up their U.S. smartphone businesses.
“The competitive landscape for smartphones, which was reshaped by Apple and Google, has ultimately forced every major handset provider through a huge transition,” said Ross Rubin, executive director, Connected Intelligence for The NPD Group. “For lots of them, 2012 might be a critical year in assessing how effective their responses has been.”
Google acquires Motorola
Motorola’s share of smartphone sales once reached greater than a 3rd of the smartphone market (36 percent) within the fourth quarter (Q4) of 2006; however, the company’s smartphone market share dropped as little as 1 percent by Q3 2009. After adopting Android, Motorola’s share of smartphone sales rose to 16 percent of the market in Q4 2010 before settling backpedal to twelve percent by Q3 2011. “Android has helped Motorola climb back into the smartphone market; now, though, Google will seek to exploit Motorola’s patent pool to assist protect other Android licensees,” in line with Rubin.
The autumn of RIM
“Few companies have felt the impact of the shift to the touch user interfaces and greater screen sizes as negatively as RIM, however the company is beginning anew with a powerful technical foundation and lots of paths to the platform,” said Rubin. Back in Q2 2006, RIM comprised half all smartphone sales; however, by Q3 2011 the corporate had fallen to eight percent. Because it prepares to introduce smartphones on its next-generation platform, RIM has already made some important incremental improvements this year with the discharge of the BlackBerry 7 operating system. RIM is now’s ranked fifth among smartphone OEMs, behind Apple, HTC, Samsung, and Motorola.
Nokia does Windows
Among the biggest news stories of the year was Nokia’s agreement with Microsoft to make use of the Windows Phone operating system on its smartphones. “Nokia and Microsoft must build from almost nothing to carve out success between the consistency of the iPhone and the ability of Android,” in keeping with Rubin. Even if Microsoft’s former smartphone operating system, Windows Mobile, peaked at 50 percent of smartphone sales in Q2 2007, Windows Phone 7 by comparison has not achieved greater than 2 percent of smartphone sales since launching in Q4 of 2010.
Information this press release is from “Cellular phone Track” and “Smartphone Track,” either one of which report at the activities of U.S. consumers, age 18 and older, who reported purchasing a cellphone or smartphone. NPD doesn’t track corporate/enterprise cellphone purchases.
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