Android losing US Market Share: IOS gains

[ScottM]

From today's GSMA Market brief

Android losing US market share, as iOS grows
Investment firm Needham & Co said that Google’s Android platform is losing its shine in the US market, with Apple’s iOS platform set to increase its market share due to the wider availability of the iPhone in the country. Based on an analysis of figures from IDC, Needham analyst Charlie Wolf noted that Android’s share of the US smartphone business fell to 49.5 percent from 52.4 percent in the latest sequential quarters, marking the platform’s first such loss in any region. This was described as “just the beginning of Android’s share loss in the US,” and contrasts with growth in share for the iPhone to 29.5 percent from 17.2 percent over the same period. Wolf also noted that Android growth internationally is slowing.
According to the Needham report, iPhone sales will increase with the launch of Apple’s anticipated iPhone 5, which will be made available via both Verizon Wireless and AT&T simultaneously. When Verizon first began offering a CDMA version of the iPhone 4 earlier this year, “it was already eight months old, an eternity in the smartphone market,” which therefore limited its appeal. This will leave Android to battle in the prepaid market and emerging territories, with the threat of a price war in the APAC region due to the number of Android products on the market. Tier-two vendors will be forced to compete on price, rather than features, prompting a battle that “could even engulf the name brand vendors,” Wolf concluded.

 

[SkyHog]

Note that the disparity between the two remains very high:
iOS: 29.5%
Android: 49.5%

The news is alarming, for sure, but the flipflop won't happen for another 3 or 4 quarters, provided neither company does anything drastic (either good or bad).

 

[Jack Spectre]

Also, keep in mind that the hardware sales for Droid are distributed among several vendors, but Apple gets ALL the hardware sales for iOS, and a piece of every App sale.

 

[zaitcev]

Also, keep in mind that the hardware sales for Droid are distributed among several vendors, but Apple gets ALL the hardware sales for iOS, and a piece of every App sale.

Old news. There were headlines "Android gets all the market share, Apple gets all the cash". All that means they don't have to take market share from Android in order to be extremely profitable.