Battle between Android and Apple heats up as iOS sales increase
Apple is coming off of a very successful 2011 fourth quarter with an estimated 35 million iPhones sold, and now it appears that Apple is closing the gap in the OS share of smart phone sales as it is within 4% of OS smart phone leader Android.
The NPD Group, a renowned research group, released a smart phone fact sheet at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) and according to their estimates, iOS-powered devices including the iPhone 4S, iPhone 4, and iPhone 3GS made up 43% of the smart phone sales in October and November of 2011. That’s a massive jump from the 26% of smart phone sales that iOS previously occupied.
With such a big increase in iOS sales, it’s no surprise that Android’s smart phone sales also decreased during the same period. Indeed, Android now holds a 47% share of the overall smart phone sales, which is a decline from the 60% share they held in the months prior to October and November.
RIM (BlackBerry), Windows Mobile, Windows Phone 7, and others make up the last 10% of overall smart phone sales during that period.
Now it’s important to realize that Apple had two things going in its favor which may explain the dramatic increase in smart phone market share. The first is, of course, the October release of iOS5 and the iPhone 4S. Both were buzzed about for months before and after the release. The 4S was so popular at the time of release that those who didn’t order on the first day of preorders (October 7th) had to wait several weeks to receive an iPhone 4S. Also, the 4S was made available on all three major cellular networks (Verizon, AT&T, and Sprint).
The second thing that Apple had going in its favor was the price reduction in the older iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS. With the release of the 4S, the iPhone 4 was reduced to $99 with a two-year contract on AT&T/Verizon, and the iPhone 3GS was reduced to no cost with a two-year contract on AT&T. Contrast this with the many Android phones that cost upwards of $199 and it becomes clear that Apple is now reaching a much larger customer base than before as their phones continue to get less and less expensive to own.
With this news that Apple has seemingly closed the gap, it will be interesting to see how Android responds and just what the smart phone market share numbers look like in a couple months when NPD Group releases the December/January numbers.
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