I read an interesting article today about Android, it’s penetration in the mobile market, and the impact to Apple and other mobile OS providers. There were some great data from Comscore included. Here’s a summary.
So it looks like Android is clobbering the market, and is going to be the relevant platform for the future. To me, this was not news, but this is yet another data point that supports what I think we all knew.
What I find most fascinating how few people are using the potential of their phone. Barely over a third have accessed the web or used downloaded apps on their phones. People are basically paying (with carrier subsidy) $200 for phones when most are using only the features they could get in phones that come free with their contracts. The thing I’d really like to understand is: are they buying smartphones because there is some killer feature they are using that is not measured in the metrics (email, calendar and contact sync perhaps?), or are they just buyng them because it’s cool to have the latest smart phone?
The other notable thing about these data are in the form of omission. Nokia is huge in Asia, doesn’t even show up on these US-centric data.
The question is then, can Windows Phone 7 save Nokia in the US? That is obviously to be seen, but analysts don’t seem to think so. Today, world-wide, Nokia has about 21% share in smart phones and Microsoft has 5.5%. IDC forecasts that by 2015, Android remains the leader, Windows Phone comes in second, and iOS is left in third place. Interesting though is that the current combined market share of Symbian (Nokia) and Windows Phone is ~26.5% yet in 2015 Windows is projected to have 20.9%, giving up share mostly to gains in Android.
The mobile phone wars, if nothing else, are fun to watch.
Sources: BusinessInsider and IDC