Android News
Gartner weighs in on smartphone growth and it’s all about Android
August 12, 2010 | by Chris Smith
Android, Android News, Android OS, Google Android
OK, so the headline may not be exactly true, but what do you expect? This is an Android-centric blog. What the Gartner data that is coming out does show is that Android is definitely on the rise in a serious way. So, serious in fact that many of the total smartphone user gains in the past quarter have been because of your little, green Android friend.
According to Gartner, smartphone sales have increased by just over 50% since the last quarter with total smartphone sales being now aroudn 19% of the market. Of course as you would expect many of the top manufacturers are involved; Nokia, Apple, RIM, LG, and Samsung. But a new top ten player has entered the game this quarter: HTC. Gartner says this about HTC entrance into the top ten:
“HTC made its debut in the top 10 worldwide ranking, holding the No. 8 position with 139.1 percent growth year-on-year. This reflects the popularity of its Android portfolio but also a more aggressive branding strategy compared to the same period in 2009.”
OK, so it really isn’t all about Android. HTC’s “You” commercials have really made the brand catapult, but Android is definitely part of the potent mix.
Something else derived from Gartner research is something that we have known from other reports; that Android has taken over Apple this quarter in total unit sales. This isn’t too surprising considering Google is selling over 200,000 units a day. What is even more telling is that Android is right on the heels of RIM’s Blackberry platform and could quite possibly sell more than RIM with all of the new compelling devices coming out this fall and winter.
So, here’s to one more “win” for the Android platform! Cheers!
Table 1
Worldwide Mobile Device Sales to End Users in 2Q10 (Thousands of Units)
| Company | 2Q10 Units | 2Q10 Market Share (%) | 2Q09 Units | 2Q09 Market Share (%) |
| Nokia | 111,473.8 | 34.2 | 105,413.4 | 36.8 |
| Samsung | 65,328.2 | 20.1 | 55,430.1 | 19.3 |
| LG | 29,366.7 | 9.0 | 30,497.0 | 10.7 |
| Research In Motion | 11,228.8 | 3.4 | 7,678.9 | 2.7 |
| Sony Ericsson | 11,008.5 | 3.4 | 13,574.3 | 4.7 |
| Motorola | 9,109.4 | 2.8 | 15,947.8 | 5.6 |
| Apple | 8,743.0 | 2.7 | 5,434.7 | 1.9 |
| HTC | 5,908.8 | 1.8 | 2,471.0 | 0.9 |
| ZTE | 5,545.8 | 1.7 | 3,697.9 | 1.3 |
| G’Five | 5,208.6 | 1.6 | NA | NA |
| Others | 62,635.2 | 19.30 | 45,977.2 | 16.1 |
| Total | 325,556.8 | 100.0 | 286,122.3 | 100.0 |
Source: Gartner (August 2010)
Table 2
Worldwide Smartphone Sales to End Users by Operating System in 2Q10 (Thousands of Units)
| Company | 2Q10 Units | 2Q10 Market Share (%) | 2Q09 Units | 2Q09 Market Share (%) |
| Symbian | 25,386.8 | 41.2 | 20,880.8 | 51.0 |
| Research In Motion | 11,228.8 | 18.2 | 7,782.2 | 19.0 |
| Android | 10,606.1 | 17.2 | 755.9 | 1.8 |
| iOS | 8,743.0 | 14.2 | 5,325.0 | 13.0 |
| Microsoft Windows Mobile | 3,096.4 | 5.0 | 3,829.7 | 9.3 |
| Linux | 1,503.1 | 2.4 | 1,901.1 | 4.6 |
| Other OSs | 1,084.8 | 1.8 | 497.1 | 1.2 |
| Total | 61,649.1 | 100.0 | 40,971.8 | 100.0 |
Source: Gartner (August 2010)
Source [Gartner]
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This doesn't add up at all with the 200.000 devices per day that Google CEO Eric Schmidt was talking about earlier this month, it's rather 117.000 per day if I did the math correctly. What's up?
lies are lies, and was he talking about activations or handset sales?
he was talking about activations, i think. But aren't they really quite the same thing? An activation must correspond with a previous handset sale, doesn't it?
I think activations are a better measurement than "sales". An activation indicates someone actually took a device, turned it on, and set it up. Sales may not refer to the same thing, for instance if Apple sells a million phones to Best Buy, or HTC sells a million to Wirefly.com, is that a million "sold"? I do not know, and it may vary from one manufacturer to the next.
it actually does. he said Android had just hit the 200,000 mark earlier *this month*. The figures you see in the Gartner report cover 2nd quarter, or April thru June. in late April, Google announce the figure was 100,000 per day. At the end of June, they announce 160,000 per day. So you can see that an average rate of ~120,000 per day aligns well with numbers that started the 3 month period below 100,000 and finished at 160,000. At the rate Android is growing, the curve probably favored the low end towards the beginning of the period and rose the most towards the end of the period.
You are absolutely right, the curve has probably been rising quite sharply. THanks for refreshing my maths =)