If you search around the internet based on the images in this post you will find loads of prognostication – Android fans calling it meaningless (despite foretelling the death of iOS with each percentage Android gains at the expense of RIM), iOS fans calling it the ‘Android plummet’ (in spite of arguing that short term shifts are meaningless), and so on.
What I see – particularly when I look at the next image – is a market that is moving more rapidly than ever before. Smartphones accounted for over TWO THIRDS of all mobile phone sales in October and November of 2011!
I mean … just look at the image above: the share of messaging and ‘basic’ phones shrank again to now account for under 33% of all phones sold! This means that two-thirds of new phone sales also added a data plan … which I am SURE the carriers love to hear! It means that the expectation for WHAT a ‘phone’ can deliver has dramatically shifted in the five years since the introduction of the iPhone when having a camera was still optional to the point where we expect apps, dual high-resolution cameras, maps, and so on.
Switching back to the top image, the combined share of Android and iOS devices continues to consume more and more of the market – in this graph accounting for a full 90% of all sales! Looking back a year, the Android/iOS pairing amounted to 68%, RIM brought 21%, and Windows Mobile and ‘others’ accounted for the remaining 11%. Now RIM is down to 6% and falling, Windows Mobile is gone, and Windows Phone 7 and ‘others’ don’t amount to more than a couple of percent.
Finally, check out the top 10 phones – a list that is at once predictable and remarkable. Is anyone surprised that the iPhone 4S is the top seller … by A LOT? Not really. Nor is it all that surprising that the iPhone 4 is also a top seller – but the fact that the iPhone 3GS sold more than ANY Android device is amazing – even if AT&T is more or less giving it away free on contract!
The remainder of the list is not a surprise either – two Samsung Galaxy S phones, the Galaxy SII, Droid Bionic, a couple of HTC phones and LG bringing up the rear.
The Business Insider post where I saw these images had a headline stating “Android’s Market Share Collapses”. To that I say – PLEASE STOP! And do not try to draw a forecasting trend with two points! The data shows that anyone who said Apple was ‘done’ or the iPhone 4S was a flop was obviously VERY wrong … but not much else.
Well, it also says that there is a ton of competition – and based on what we’ve seen the last couple of months for new devices and what is coming out of CES this week, consumers will continue to be the winners. So long as the carriers don’t spoil the party, anyway.
What do you think about this latest sales data?
Source: Business Insider