Android Smartphone Share Growing
The Android smartphone operating system broke through the 50 percent barrier in April by getting to 53 percent of connections (presumably in the USA). The top three smartphone operating systems are:
- Andriod with 53 percent.
- Apple’s iOS with 28 percent.
- RIM’s Blackberry OS with 16 percent.
However while Andriod may currently be the number one smartphone operating system Apple are making significantly more money due to the much higher margins they have on the iPhone device (via the carriers) plus the margins they make from iOS apps and music/video downloads to phones. It is estimated that Apple pull in about seven times the revenue per handset per annum that Android smartphone manufacturers are enjoying.
In the “open” Andriod world a higher percentage of apps are free and users can download music and video from many and varied sources (and get much of it for free).
This breakdown is expected to change markedly by the end of the year as Microsoft’s Phone 7 operating system builds up steam through the recent Nokia alliance (the world’s largest maker of mobile phones), and as the RIM Blackberry starts to fall from favour in the corporate environment.
