Android Nipping At iPhone's Heels

[Ed Hansberry]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.engadget.com/2010/03/29/stats-iphone-os-is-still-king-of-the-mobile-web-space-but-andr/' target='_blank'>http://www.engadget.com/2010/03/29/...space-but-andr/</a><br /><br /></div><p>Apple's iPhone peaked around 70% of market share in the summer of 2009 and has been steadily decreasing since, largely due to Android, which has come on strong. RIM has also seen a steady decrease from around 27% share in October 2008 to somewhere below 10% recently. And Windows Mobile? Embarrassing. As of February 2010, even WebOS had more share.</p><p>Engadget has the full chart showing just how fast the market has changed in the last 18 months. Do you think we will see a similar change in the next 18 as Windows Phone 7 ships?</p>

[griph]

http://www.engadget.com/2010/03/29/...space-but-andr/ (http://www.engadget.com/2010/03/29/stats-iphone-os-is-still-king-of-the-mobile-web-space-but-andr/)


Apple's iPhone peaked around 70% of market share in the summer of 2009 and has been steadily decreasing since, largely due to Android, which has come on strong. RIM has also seen a steady decrease from around 27% share in October 2008 to somewhere below 10% recently. And Windows Mobile? Embarrassing. As of February 2010, even WebOS had more share.
Engadget has the full chart showing just how fast the market has changed in the last 18 months. Do you think we will see a similar change in the next 18 as Windows Phone 7 ships?

Just to clarify that this is about market share of mobile web space and not numbers of hand helds! I think Android have a way to go before they are anywhere near the number of iPhone devices sold!

[Ed Hansberry]

Just to clarify that this is about market share of mobile web space and not numbers of hand helds! I think Android have a way to go before they are anywhere near the number of iPhone devices sold!
Ahh, indeed. I was reviewing some marketshare numbers in another article and had that on the brain.

That said, it surprises me more about web share than market share that Android is catching up like this. I wonder if the Android's heavy Google influence in services is cranking this number up? It isn't like Android users would read so much more than iPhone users in their browser.

[Lee Yuan Sheng]

It isn't like Android users would read so much more than iPhone users in their browser.

Why not? I get the feeling that most Android users are more tech and web savvy, so they're more likely to go online and browse.

[griph]

That said, it surprises me more about web share than market share that Android is catching up like this. I wonder if the Android's heavy Google influence in services is cranking this number up? It isn't like Android users would read so much more than iPhone users in their browser.
Not sure why - the iPhone uses Google too - perhaps that only now Android is beginning to take off and the novelty of the web is still new whereas the iPhone has been around for a while and the novelty has worn off a bit? ALternatively perhaps Google's new online Navigation offering is partly to blaim - I have Navigon on my iPhone for GPS Navigation with the maps built in, not requiring a data connection to load them, whereas Google's offering relies on a data connection to download maps?

[heliod]

Just to clarify that this is about market share of mobile web space and not numbers of hand helds! I think Android have a way to go before they are anywhere near the number of iPhone devices sold!

To focus a little more, those are only numbers on visits to sites in which Admob presents its ads.

Meaning that Android users are now the champions on going to those 15,000 ad maintained sites, while there might be much more blackberries and WM devices visiting other sites.

Unfortunately I couldn't find at Admob's website a customer list to know how serious are the 15,000 websites in which they base their stats.

But hey, an ancient Brazilian saying states that "Statistics are like the Bikini: they show everything but the essential".

[whydidnt]

I think that the points previous posters make about this being AdMob only statistics is relevant, especially when you consider that Google owns AdMob. It's only natural that their OS and apps would steer users towards that revenue stream.

Having said that, it does prove a point I've preached about several times before. It really shows that there is a market beyond iPhone users for mobile internet access. If you provide users with a fast capable web browser, they will use it. It's very sad that Microsoft basically ignored this fact for years and years, hoisting the truly terrible PIE upon us. No wonder WM never showed huge web usage numbers. The updated IE included in WM6.x is only slightly better, and from a usage standpoint is awful compared to the webkit browsers from Apple and Google. Opera Mobile is decent, but even so, slower on my 1 Ghz HD2 than the either the iPhone or Android browsers on the iPhone 3GS or Nexus1 respectively.