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U.S. Android Sales Beat iPhone in Q1 – Study

By: , IntoMobile
Monday, May 10th, 2010 at 9:50 AM

A recent survey of 150,000 users by NPD Group claims that as of Q1, Android is the number two smartphone OS in the U.S. with 28% market share, bumping out Apple (21%), and beaten only by BlackBerry (36%). When broken down by carrier, AT&T took 32% of sales, Verizon close behind with 30%, trailed by T-Mobile (17%) and Sprint (15%).

Now, these results are only taking into account U.S. The iPhone is still big in Japan – I’d be curious to see how Android would fare internationally in a similar study. Although they’re becoming less and less a part of RIM’s forward progress, the study also doesn’t take into account enterprise sales, which could further widen BlackBerry’s lead.

Now, I’m up in Canada, so can’t speak too much as to what Americans are seeing, but does this sound right to you guys? There are some hot Android phones out there these days, like the HTC Incredible, HTC Desire, the Quench, and a developer environment that enables some really cool stuff can also attract a lot of customers to the platform. Google’s done a good job of making its Android offensive multilateral in both hardware and carrier channels, so the numbers make sense in theory, but the iPhone has so much visibility that it’s hard to imagine Android’s beating it out.

[via NPD, pic]

About The Author

Simon Sage

Simon Sage’s education largely surrounded writing, technology and online community, leading him to begin his blogging career at www.BlackBerryCool.com and to quickly discover a vibrant and active community surrounding BlackBerry and mobile technology. In exploring RIM’s platform, he has learned what enterprises are looking for in mobility as well as what makes the innocuous BlackBerry so appealing to them. Recently Simon’s been covering RIM’s gradual move into an already-crowded consumer market, and the impact of burgeoning challengers, such as the iPhone, as well as long-time leaders, like Nokia, on BlackBerry’s advancement. With plenty of content under his belt, Simon will be branching off a bit to see what other smartphone manufacturers are working on while still using BlackBerry as a barometer. At IntoMobile, you can count on his posts being even-handed, well-informed and thought-out.

  • Scarabian

    Seems accurate to me. More importantly, I think we're watching history repeat itself. Android may turn out to be what IBM was to Apple in the early 80's. A few years later, IBM learned the same lesson.

    The signs are all there; Apple's exclusivity with ATT, the proprietary environment and proprietary strategies deployed up & down the channel – from the supplier, to the system/device, to the apps. Along comes Android for the masses, endorsed by Verizon, not as restrictive, more flexible, more open and a fast growing list of available apps. It was only a matter of time. Give it another year for the market to build secure business level apps & capabilities, and Android devices could surpass RIM.

    Apple's contract with ATT has served both companies well, but I think they appear to be riding a wave to the beach. Apple would do well by opening up distribution of the iPhone, and then go to work on a strategy to open the environment a bit. Who knows, maybe they're both working in that direction and we'll hear something about it next month.

  • Jake

    Hmmm, could it be that giving away android phones is a good way to boost numbers? Great for profit margins. And how’s Google’s Nexus model doing, by the way? Wonder why Sprint just dropped it?

    • Jeff

      Um, Nexus One is a very small portion of the Android Phone Market. Plus, from what I understand Google is marketing the Nexus one through their Market, not through Sprint. Also, do you know or understand how many android phones would have to be given away to effect the numbers surveyed? It would be 100's if not 1000's and if thats the case I want one!