Henry Blodget at Business Insider has posted about Comscore’s latest smartphone market share survey: “Apple’s share increased slightly, but is dead in the water and has now fallen way behind Android. Android now has a third of the US market (33%). RIM’s share has plummeted to 29%. Apple is holding at 25%.” The Android market share figure for the quarter before, Sep-Nov 2010, was just 25%, so it certainly shows a sharp increase.
Blodget’s article is incredibly linkbaity from start to end, but the underlying Comscore data is interesting nevertheless. Should “Apple fans should be scared to death” as Blodget surmises, though? His contention is that, with a higher (and growing) market share, app developers will soon come to prefer Android as their main platform and iOS will gradually whither away as it becomes more and more of an afterthought. Although not impossible, I’d suggest this is quite unlikely and (even if Blodget is correct and the mobile market will converge onto a single OS) it is far, far too soon to say which OS that will be.
Firstly, consider that despite Android’s rising market share Apple owned 83% of all mobile transactions in 2010. This has led many to suggest that Android users simply don’t like paying for apps, which might be true; there are many mid-range Android handsets marketed at cost-conscious consumers, whereas the iPhone is a resolutely expensive device. Google, as an advertising-driven firm, would also perhaps prefer to have an app store full of free apps that show their adverts than one full of premium apps.
Continue reading “iPhone dead in water”, claims Business Insider
“iPhone dead in water”, claims Business Insider originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 04 Apr 2011 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments