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Nielsen US Share Graphic: Android Prevailing, But OEMs Still Trail Apple, RIM

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Nielsen has revealed an infographic showing something we’ve known for a long time: Android is the number one smartphone in the United States with Apple and Blackberry fighting hard to take their crowns back. Android holds 29% of the market share while RIM and Apple each account for 27% for their respective operating systems.

This doesn’t mean that they aren’t the leaders against their hardware competitors, though: HTC, Motorola, Samsung, Sony, and more all still trail Apple and RIM by a large amount even when you combine their smartphone offerings that run other operating systems.

Another interesting tidbit they mentioned was that Android is more popular amongst youngsters compared to iOS and Blackberry. Check out Nielsen’s brief commentary on the graphic at their blog now. [Neilsen]

Quentyn Kennemer
The "Google Phone" sounded too awesome to pass up, so I bought a G1. The rest is history. And yes, I know my name isn't Wilson.

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25 Comments

  1. I guess that kills. . . what’s his name argument–the #1 iPad fan–that Android phones don’t have a significant share of any market outside of emerging markets.

    Sometimes I wonder where these fans get their fact.

    The other graph showing use by age is a nice addition.

  2. Very good news for Android and Android OEMs. Android needs to attract first line developers to the platform and this is the kind of news that helps. Even more impressive is the adoption rate by younger buyers. While Apple’s lead as a manufacturer is often ballyhooed, developers don’t build apps for manufacturers, they build for platforms. As to capitalized value as proof of Apple’s dominance in the mobile market, if you totaled the capitalized value of the Android OEMS, the numbers would probably mirror the numbers in this Nielson report.

  3. I’d love to see a more demographic breakdowns – sex, race, income – just out of curiosity.

  4. You can’t kill iPhoneboy arguments. They just come up with new ones. For example, they always boasted that Apple always had the best tech and everyone had to catchup and copy them. Since that is no longer the case, they now claim that the ipad2 is great because it costs less than higher specced models.

  5. You got that right ari-free. First they say Android is garbage and never has a chance, then when that is proven nonsense they say “well, it’s about time with all those devices”… it seems unlikely that they’ll ever realize the device will soon be reserved for fanboys that choose it solely to defend their own egos, while all with sense realize it is quickly going the way of the blackberry, as well as the way of the mac market share vs PC.
    Open Platform + Many Carriers + Many Manufacturers vs Closed Platofrm + 2 Carriers + 1 Manufacturer… not exactly rocket science to determine the winner there.

  6. I suspect the ‘iPhone os’ stats include ipodtouch etc…They should have shown a breakdown, you can’t pretend that huge bar is iPhone only!

  7. dead link

  8. Posts 4 and 5 sums it up pretty much for the Android vs. Apple debates.

  9. @sam

    Graph says Manufacturer operating system share – smartphone. If you go by Graph’s header, I think all of that bar corresponds to iPhone (iOS) not iPod Touch(iOS).

  10. Nokia is Dead…

  11. So if young people are a big demographic, why the $#*#!! can’t they get out the equivalent of an iPod touch?

  12. Fair question Anakin; Though in the near future I expect manufacturers are going to realize that this free open OS has all sorts of very viable applications. Anything from alarm clocks to car stereo head units to even airplane flight instruments.

  13. @ari-free: First it was Android wasn’t optimized for tablets. Now that it is, it’s the amount of apps available for tablets (from the same crowd that said numbers weren’t everything when sales passed up Apple). Not sure what the next argument will be when the apps start pooring in.

    @anakin78z: Cowon has an Android pmp that looks great. Android is still young, it’s getting there little by little.

    Best thing I see is the popularity of the younger crowd. That’s huge because it shows a shift in mindset towards a certain OS.

  14. How in the world does HTC appear in the Palm/WebOS column?

  15. Yea the age graph is very interesting.
    .
    Its damn near the same across the board for the big 3.

  16. @Charles, you are reading it wrong. I think it’s just because they couldn’t fit it directly under its category but if you match each os to the bar, you’ll see they are two seperate categories

  17. It does seem like a lot of younger people(my age have android nowadays) vs iphones though. Hmmm….interesting

  18. Nope, HTC is in the HP/WebOS category… interesting…

  19. I don’t think most people realize what android is. That includes young people. They just want a phone that does X. With BOGO offers etc… it should be no surprise the phones are popular. All in all, that graph shows how badly apple has trounced all competition.

  20. Interesting take Mr Truth. Ironic because it seems like your argument is in favor of iOS despite the fact that iOS is a niche device like Blackberry: it doesn’t do everything, but what it does do it does well. People choose Android over iOS because of what iOS doesn’t do.

  21. @charles
    htc use to make web os phones a few years ago
    anyways, i can agree with alot of young people are taking android since most people in my school have either the droid phones(droid, droid 2, droid x) or galaxy s phones(fascinate and the epic since my area is strongest with cdma)while second place is the iphone and third being blackberrys

  22. @Mr. Truth. Truthfully the BOGO offers are not a huge part of what draw most to Android. In the larger world picture it has almost nothing to do with it. I think the real reason that Android is so popular is that there is so much choice in Android phones. From hardware (screen size/processor speed/etc) to software (customization options), Android is all about what the customer chooses. Apple, on the other hand, only puts out one model a year and if you don’t like it then too bad. I will admit thought that having only one model to buy for makes it easy to get lots of accessories. :D

  23. @Mr. Truth
    Also, in what world does being tied for second mean that you “trounced” the competition?

  24. This is a great news.

    Thanks

  25. For folks who wanna mention BOGO offers as to why Android phones are popular…
    .
    Did that keep Win Mo in 2nd place in market share? No, it didnt. I dont know if some of yall are too young or too blinded but Win Mo was at the top in market share at one time. If I remember correctly, Palm had BOGO offers too.
    .
    Why do some ppl act like BOGO was invented with Android?
    .
    Ppl are choosing Android cuz its something they want.
    .
    Its that simple….

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