Android market share surpasses iPhone’s, NPD says

SAN FRANCISCO
— The Android mobile operating system passed the Apple iPhone in terms
of U.S. market share during the first quarter, according to a report
issued Monday by the NPD Group.

According to the study, the Android OS — developed by Google Inc.
— ended the period with a domestic market share of 28 percent. That’s
up from about 20 percent in the December quarter, and is due mostly to
strong sales of handsets such as the Droid and Droid Eris at Verizon Wireless, according to the report.

The iPhone from Apple Inc. saw its U.S. share remain relatively flat at 21 percent. The leader in the U.S. remains Research In Motion, whose BlackBerry family of “smart phone” devices has about 36 percent of the market, according to NPD data.

“Verizon is putting considerable effort behind promoting Android to its customers,” said NPD analyst Ross Rubin of the latest report.

A big part of the boost for the Android platform came from the launch of the Droid handset from Motorola
in late 2009. The device racked up strong sales and helped the
platform’s market share surge from below 5 percent in the third quarter
to end the year around 20 percent, according to NPD data.

The data are supported somewhat by a similar report
issued from IDC on Friday. Looking at the smart-phone market by vendor,
IDC found that Motorola had about 11.7 percent market share in North America
in the first quarter, while HTC — another big vendor of Android
handsets — had 9.2 percent. Combined, those numbers were ahead of the
17.2 percent market share attributed to Apple.

Rubin said much of the growth for Android is likely attributable to the fact that — before the launch of the Droid — Verizon customers had few alternatives to the iPhone at AT&T.

“Prior to launch of Droid, there had not been a lot of modern, touch-optimized smart phones available at Verizon,”
Rubin said, who added that the majority of smart-phone sales at a
carrier typically come from customers who are already signed up to that
carrier.

Verizon is expected to
put heavy promotion behind the latest Android device — the Droid
Incredible from HTC — for the next several months.

The data may also indicate pressure on Apple to expand its base of carriers for the iPhone. The device is still exclusive to AT&T in the U.S. market, despite persistent speculation that it might expand to Verizon later this year. The company has never commented on any of these rumors.

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