Android Plays Its Part In Overall Worldwide Smartphone Marketshare Growth
It’s no secret that smartphones are becoming wildly popular as time goes on, and that trend looks like it will continue throughout 2010. According to the International Data Corporation, market share in Q1 2010 grew by 54.7% compared to the same quarter in 2009. The overall mobile phone market grew 21.7%, with 18.8% of phones shipped in Q1 of this year happening to be smartphones.
Both Motorola and HTC showed the most impressive growth on the Android side of things in Q1 2010 compared to 2009 with market share growth seeing 91.7% and 73.3% for both companies, respectively (note: HTC currently has Windows Mobile-based offerings on the market). Other Android devices were included in the “Others” category, which shows a 23.6% increase of market share from Q1 2009.
Basically what this means is that smartphones are gaining every day in popularity, and Android is right up with their with Nokia, RIM, and Apple as growth is expected to be even more impressive throughout the year (for reference, Q4 is seen as the strongest growth period for the market, which saw growth of 38% in 2009 compared to Q4 of 2008).
Kevin Restivo, senior analyst for IDC’s Worldwide Mobile Phone Tracker says:
More consumers are aware of smartphones now due to positive referrals from friends and family and manufacturer’s mass media campaigns,” said. Restivo. “Coupled with increased confidence on the part of consumers, these factors will create a perfect storm of demand for suppliers this year.
I can’t wait to see how these numbers end up looking with the large influx of high-end, mid-ranged, and low-end devices coming our way this year. As Android is custom-fitted (on a phone-by-phone basis) to tailor to non-techies, we should see a steady increase in market share from Android as a whole, as well.
[via GigaOM]