By 
We see a lot of reports that put Android towards the top of mobile operating system share in the United States, but Gartner has just released their Q3 mobile sales report, and in it Android takes the number two spot for all mobile operating systems worldwide. Rising from just 3.5 percent this time last year to a second-place 25.5 percent of all phones sold in Q3, Android easily beat out iOS, which now sits in third with a declining share of 16.7 percent. The only OS to beat Android? Symbian with an 11 percent lead at 36.6 percent.
When the numbers are focused on the US the results are skewed ever further towards Android, with Google’s OS taking the top spot followed by iOS and RIM. Gartner estimates Verizon sales alone were made up of 75 to 80 percent Android devices. We don’t see that changing anytime soon.
[via Gartner]
Seems that steve jobs was incorrect about androids significance in the mobile market place!
People may hate on Verizon, but they pushed innovation with Android. AND they DO have the best network in the U.S. I can get signal practically anywhere, unlike Sprint. It may not be the “fastest” network but it works and that’s what counts in the end.
Android FTW!
-Brad
If Apple wants to remain above Android, they need to hurry up and sell their iPhone 4 on Verizon at least, if not all 4 major carriers.
Had verizon for 5 years… couldn’t get reception in my neighborhood or house, great everywhere else on the planet… Verizon’s answer? add a verizon repeater in my home…. OK give me one…… No cost ya $150…. Cya VERIZON… now had Cincy Bell for 2 years.. I can take phone calls in my basement without any additional equip… may not be the best phone selection (although I do enjoy my Moto XT720), but best rates & best local network.. & when I travel, I have not problems with roaming….. Verizon’s service is greatly over-rated.
Jobs sells to very few select providers, the Android is on every network out there. Jobs has made three phones, Android has 50 phones available from all the major phone makers. Android should be doing better if it is on every network and in all price ranges. I wonder if the iphone was on sprint, tmobile, and verizon how the numbers would look.
linux == android
@whappy
You are aware that there is a world outside the US, right?
http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Mobile-and-Wireless/Android-at-at-19-as-Apple-Closes-on-RIM-Nielsen-195231/?kc=EWKNLLIN11092010STR5
Worldwide total Rim is still number one. Whats it been 4 years now that iphone’s been out? And closing on 3 for android? Doesn’t look like rim is going anywhere.
Now if you really do the numbers and look at who the 30, 28 and 19 represent, you’ll get an even different picture. Rims enterprise customers are way more profitable than ios or android.
For the people crying wolf about the iPhone being on just one cartier, that’s only the case in the US. The rest of the world has no iPhone exclusivity and yet Android still wins.
Also remember that even AT&T is selling Androids like hot cakes.
Upto 80% of Android sales (US) come from Verizon? Wow, Android is going to crash hard if the iPhone ever comes to Verizon then. 9 million current Verizon users said they would get the iPhone if it’s made available. I can only assume they use Android now as it’s the closest alternative. Worldwide, the change wouldn’t even make a dent. Android is really going to have to step it up on Verizon to compete with the iPhone. Or, they can put their flagship phones on Sprint & T-Mobile exclusively.
http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2010/10/06/the-verizon-iphone-how-many-would-switch/
@rramsdell Linux also == Maemo, MeeGo, and I’m sure a few others
@Sam I am,
You do realize that the online voting is rigged correct? It has specifically shown that a single website can change the numbers dramitically.
Do you recall?
http://online.wsj.com/community/groups/question-day-229/topics/makes-best-mobile-operating-system
I still can’t believe that there are that many Blackberries. I was at a gig last night and although I hate people taking pictures at gigs I did take the liberty of checking out every phone I saw. Out of around 20 phones, every single one was running Android. Didn’t see one iPhone, didn’t see one Blackberry, didn’t see anything running Symbian or anything else. We win.
Then again, as pointed out, I doubt there’s that much call for corporate Blackberries at gigs.
@Anas
Thank you….
@Sam I Am
Hmmm if that 75 -80 percent is right…its is gonna be very interesting to see what happens if/when the iPhone comes to Verizon. I had no idea Verizon was the bulk of Android sales…
Sam I Am, I believe you misread – it doesn’t say 80% of Android sales are on Verizon, it says 80% of Verizons sales were Androids.
@Dan
Yea i was just getting ready to say the same thing…lol
Reading is fundamental huh…lol I misread too.
Also iPhone has been out for around 2 years more than the 1st android phone. 3 years since the Droid campaign which started the quick spike in numbers.
I recently bought the Droid X. My son is due for a new phone and had wanted an iPhone, partly because he has apple products for his music and what his friends have. However, since seeing my phone and what it can do he is planning to get the X within the next couple of weeks even though I suggested he look hard at both options. So not all Apple product users will choose the iPhone over a solid Droid phone.
@DanGrover: I totally misread that, thanks. My eyes must have fixated on that 80% thing lol. That’s good. I couldn’t understand how 80% of all US Android sales would be on Verizon? I just don’t trust iJobs. If the iPhone comes to Verizon, I’m sure he’ll make some backroom deal that Verizon can only sell sh*tty Android phones from that point forward.
@ whappy, android went from 3.5% last year to 25.5% this year. What else do u want?? Check back next year, they will be numero UNO!
Same quarter the iPhone was updated, and yet they decline in sales from the previous year. IOS is stale, and even with the new updates, it’s still not much different than when it was first introduced. When the list of what your phone can’t do is greater than what it can do compared to other operating systems, it’s time to either admit defeat, or do some serious upgrades. Unfortunately for Apple, they probably won’t do either because their pride is too big.
–
If the iPhone comes to Verizon, it won’t make a huge impact on Android. People buy phones for specific reasons, and the openness of the Android UI is a large selling feature. I don’t see anyone I know on Verizon dumping their Androids for IOS. What will happen is the AT&T iPhone users will switch carriers with the end result being close to the same in overall sales. AT&T might be cheap, but they are not stupid. If they see huge migrations to Verizon, they’ll push Android instead. Everyone saw how Verizon benefitted from backing Android, AT&T will repeat the process if their accounts suffer. And if they lose the iPhone exclusiveness, they will have more freedom to push Android. I’m firmly convinced they’ve downplayed Android because they had exclusive rights to the iPhone in the U.S., but that might change.
@Sam
Two reasons why I don’t think that would happen:
1. Jobs needs Verizon and Sprint more than they really need him. Look at all the sales of Android phones they’re making a killing on. They don’t need the iPhone to keep floating.
2. If the details of a backroom deal like that ever leaked (and it will), it would be a huge PR nightmare for Apple and Verizon. And I’m sure that falls under creating a monopoly and is thus illegal.
Nope…not giving up my big screen, HDMI out Droid X for a phone with an antenna issue that won’t even let you decide what type of keyboard you want installed on it.
/seriously people? Those that switch might as well hook their credit cards up to Jobs personal bank account.
But outside of the US, to get an unlocked iphone that works on any carrier costs about 1,000 us dollars. 99% of people do not want to spend 1,000 dollars on a phone. So basically it is exclusive.
I think this will take a while to sink in for iFools because its going to HURT. Since these are worldwide numbers it COMPLETELY destroys the idea that a Verizon iPhone would stop Android. It could have a year ago…even very early this year. But people have learned what Android has to offer and now their decisions are a conscious one over iOS and not just getting the next best thing. Theres simply no excuse now. Android is simply better. iPhone on every U.S. carrier will only save it…maybe not even that…but it won’t hurt Android. Multiple carriers have done nothing to stop Android worldwide.
Didn’t it pass iOS months ago?
Also I think Gartner will be correcting (again) their 2014 prediction about Android beating Symbian by the end of next year. No way it will take Android 3 more years to beat Symbian at the rate it’s growing right now.
If the iPhoney coming to VZW in any way affects the line of Droids or even Android products for that fact that are available, I will not hesitate to jump ship to another carrier. I don’t even like the idea of CrApple sitting next to the Droids on the store shelves!
Zorxd and Me? So do you still think the iphone is not exclusive outside the us if it costs 1000 bucks outside of the main carrier?
And the only reason android exists is because apple did the ios first. Android technically existed before but not how it is now with the marketplace/apps etc. Now they’re making tablets AFTER apple makes one. I’m still waiting for android to invent or be the first at doing anything. If you love android and all they do is copy apple, you’re following steve jobs.
Symbian? Who out there still uses Symbian…..AND WHY?
@whappy – so what, they can follow and then do a better job making more a more open platform. Fine with me. Competition is always good for the consumer as well as the developers
-B
android == linux
Brad 2;
Competition is great but simply remaking the same touch based ios and app store using a different programming language is not innovative, pretty obvious, and it always leaves android a few steps behind the lead innovator, apple. The innovative genius is the one that thought of touch based os’s first, and does all the dirty work to develop it before anyone else at the risk of it not being profitable. Android waits for apple to develop an ios/app store/ipad, waits to see if it’s profitable, Then finally just copies it to another format. That’s barely competition, it seems more like following the leader.
If apple is so closed and stifling competition and choice, how come ios customers have 3 times as many choices for apps? If I want an accessory or dock for my apple device I have way more choices than android users. If I want a tablet I can get the ipad which is on it’s third update while android is still getting it’s tablet marketplace setup.
@whappy: And Apple made apps after RIM did. And Apple made tablets after HP did. Yeah, you’re right, Apple invented smart phones.
–
I’m waiting for Apple to do half of what Android offers.
@whappy: how many fart apps do you need? Apparently 3x as many.
@Whappy: Apple wasn’t the first company that applied a touchscreen to a phone, that award goes to the Ericsson R380 running the Symbian OS. Also Apple has had the iPhone (January 2007) out longer than Android (October 2008) so of course they would have more apps. That amount of apps available doesn’t make Apple better.
I love watching the arguments break out on articles like this one. Choices are good if you like a choice & its within your budget go for it.
Myself, I choose android, probably from using Linux. I don’t have a lot of spare money to spend on phones+ apps. Linux is free, most android that I have a need for is free. iphones cost too much & blackberry is just too limited IMHO.
the competition simply means to me that I will be buying a more fitting and advanced phone than my n1 sooner than I had guessed.
Aeires I didn’t say they invented smartphones stupid, I was implying that they innovated enough to take smartphones to another level. RIM’s app store started in 2009 according to wikipedia, and today they have a grand total of 10,000 apps. Are you trying to compare that to the 100k app android marketplace or the 300k apple app store? Grow a brain.
And you honestly think we’re 200k ahead of you thanks to 200,000 fart apps? Try EA games, netflix, mobitv, slingbox, capcom, etc. ios users get all the apps first, Then android gets them later on some time. We lead and you follow, know your place.
Regarding the ipad, the touch based interfacing, a streamlined ui, and the apps store access is the innovation. Apple first made a tablet in 1993, but still it did not have the interface we have today, nor was it as easy to access so many programs/apps for so cheap. Wikipedia explains it well,
Tablet computers and tablet PCs
As of 2010, two distinctly different types of “tablet computers” exist. On one hand, there are older tablet personal computers, that are mainly computers which are x86 based,[5] and which are in fact classic fully functional personal computers, that happen to use a slightly modified personal computer OS (Like Windows or Ubuntu Linux) which supports their touch-screen, instead of a traditional display mouse, and keyboard. A typical tablet personal computer needs to be stylus driven, because operating the typical desktop based OS requires a high precision to select GUI widgets, such as a the close window button.
On the other hand, since mid-2010 there are new tablet computer systems that have abandoned the old Wintel paradigm, and have adopted a different interface, and in doing so created a new type of computing device.[6] These mobile OS tablet computer devices are normally finger driven, and use multi-touch capacitive touch screens, instead of the simple resistive touchscreens of typical stylus driven systems. First and foremost of them was the iPad, but other such tablet computer systems are following. These systems have abandoned the x86 precondition, (needed to be Windows compatible) and instead use a new version of a processor from the family of the ARM architecture, a processor type that until now was only used in portable equipment like MP3 players and cell phones, but with the introduction of the ARM Cortex family has become powerful enough for most contemporary computing tasks, such as browsing the Internet, light production work and gaming, tasks that historically have been done on x86 based personal computers.[7]
@whappy it only means exclusive if you mean available, if locked, on all the major networks at least that’s the case here in the UK
@whappy – they didnt just “remake” the same OS, etc. They may have copied it, but they made it BETTER in a lot of ways while they did it. That’s why it’s still beneficial.
-B
Sorry for the asshole comments intelligent commentors, that was just meant for the people that first called us ifools and fart app lovers. Those people can still suck it.
And thanks ghost I wasn’t sure of the details but remembered hearing legal unlocked iPhones were unreasonably expensive for almost all customers.
I can see some of the benefits brad, and the fine details of the os’s are debatable but I think considering iOS a joke is not realistic. Some people here have to at least admit it’s not some joke crap os. Significant smartphone strides were made and risks taken by apple and any competing CEO would admit that. Consumer reports gave evo4g and the iphone essentially the same rating, saying the iphone is a joke shows you are ignorant. If you are the non windows Linux type and are fully independent for the right reasons, that’s respectable. I just have the opinion that the benefits brought on by android are at a cost of choice for programs, non standard fragmented hardware and updates, and I don’t have the patience for that and I don’t mind supporting the people I think really innovated here and pulled it off pretty well.
the good thing about those fart apps is I can make my g1 from htc fart, my galaxy tab from samsung fart, and my moto droid fart and never have to purchase a new fart app and only buying one fart app that works on all of my android devices. so there. if i buy an lg android phone i can put that fart app on there and i can have all my devices farting at the same time.
StevO:
.
Can’t imagine the result being too dissimilar from:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Hn1ylzQTTI
@rramsdell I saw a winmobile fansite on their mainpage promoting to vote for Windows mobile os and windows was actually winning there. I bet those guys got mad lol.
@rramsdell I found it lol.
http://wmpoweruser.com/vote-for-windows-phone-7-at-the-wall-street-journal/
I’m so glad that Apple was stupid enough to make iPhone exclusive and I only wish that Verizon would give them the middle finger when they try to push that thing onto Big Red. But I know its all about money and eventually we’ll see one.
@Aeires
Same quarter the iPhone was updated, and yet they decline in sales from the previous year. IOS is stale, and even with the new updates, it’s still not much different than when it was first introduced. When the list of what your phone can’t do is greater than what it can do compared to other operating systems, it’s time to either admit defeat, or do some serious upgrades. Unfortunately for Apple, they probably won’t do either because their pride is too big.
–
If the iPhone comes to Verizon, it won’t make a huge impact on Android. People buy phones for specific reasons, and the openness of the Android UI is a large selling feature. I don’t see anyone I know on Verizon dumping their Androids for IOS. What will happen is the AT&T iPhone users will switch carriers with the end result being close to the same in overall sales. AT&T might be cheap, but they are not stupid. If they see huge migrations to Verizon, they’ll push Android instead. Everyone saw how Verizon benefitted from backing Android, AT&T will repeat the process if their accounts suffer. And if they lose the iPhone exclusiveness, they will have more freedom to push Android. I’m firmly convinced they’ve downplayed Android because they had exclusive rights to the iPhone in the U.S., but that might change.
oh right it’s not the shitty network that AT&T offers your saying its the phones that are bringing there market down. dude who owns the biggest market in the us. verizon, therefore when majority vzw users go iphone they effect the market share so much more making iOS grow more hahaha moving android to a smaller market will make their business shrink. since verizon has majority.