Over the last week or more, there were many reports about how the popularity of the Android OS is going to be taking a lead over iOS some time this year. Today, reports are out that show Android is still making its way to the top even as the sales of the iPhone rise over the last three months. Apple iPhone has gained some share of the market over the last three months and the Android devices were somewhat flat over the same period of time. There are plenty of stats to support the reports and Nielsen has reported most of them.
17 percent of users that took the survey said they bought an iPhone in the last 90 days. This was up 10 percent from the same survey taken three months ago. In February and May, the clear choice was an Android device, which came in at about 27 percent of those polled. With the data, Nielsen posted on their blog that “Apple is driving Smartphone growth”. Even though the stats don’t seem to go with what was said on the blog, other experts weighed in with their 2 cents.
Some say that it just doesn’t make sense that Android popularity is going down, especially when you take a look at what the stats say. 27 percent is clearly higher than 19 percent, so it would appear that Android is on the climb. Even though more iPhones were purchased over the time period, which just speaks to Apple’s popularity, Android is making its way up. iPhone sales are up over the last three months, but Android has maintained and kept their smartphone user base longer than most. March through May the Android devices that were activated accounted for 38 percent of all smartphones in the United States.
Apple has only about 27 percent of the market share and the 11 percent gap is showing that Android is driving the Smartphone growth, not Apples iPhone. Over the last couple months it is more important to note that more users have gone to the iPhone and actually have left Blackberry to do so. The drop in RIM’s market share is happening as Apple goes up. RIM has not updated in some time and users are likely jumping ship to the iPhone because of that, among other reasons. RIM’s new buyers have actually dropped another 5 percent to 6 percent in May.
