Android Phone Demand Up 250%, iPhone Down

CWmike writes "A 'monstrous' jump in demand for Android-equipped smartphones has turned the market upside down, according to a retail pollster. Of the people who told ChangeWave Research in a mid-December survey that they planned to buy a smartphone in the next 90 days, 21% said they expected to purchase an Android phone. That number represented a 250% increase over the 6% that pegged Android as their mobile OS of choice when ChangeWave last queried consumers' plans in September. 'That change rivals anything that we've seen in the last three years of the smartphone market,' said Paul Carton, ChangeWave's director of research, adding that the sudden surge in consumer interest in Android had 'roiled' the market. 'This is an indication that Android has finally caught consumer interest,' added Carton, who cited the recent advertising campaign for the Motorola Droid smartphone as the reason why interest in Android has skyrocketed. Android's leap translated into good news for Motorola and HTC, the most prominent makers of Google-powered handsets, with the former reaping most of the benefit. Motorola's share of smartphone purchases in the next 90 days shot up from 1% in September to 13% in December. Carton tagged the company's Droid as the reason. '[It's] the first increase for Motorola we've seen in three years,' Carton said." Here is the ChangeWave report.

Sounds like real data to confirm the survey

[Suki I]

Motorola's share of smartphone purchases in the next 90 days shot up from 1% in September to 13% in December. Carton tagged the company's Droid as the reason. '[It's] the first increase for Motorola we've seen in three years,' Carton said."

The survey could mean lots of things without this bit of confirmation data. Sales are going in the same direction as the survey.

Re:Bring it on, please

[sznupi]

Creative Zii runs also under Android AFAIK, as do some Archos devices.

Re:I am not surprised

[Anonymous Coward]

I often wondered what was so special about the iPhone. I have never got a satisfying answer.

The ability to see all of your voice mails without having to listen to them sequentially. You have a list, you can listen to any of them in any order. And you don't have to listen to them at all and still be able to delete them. - you can't do that with other services. That is why Apple is exclusive to ATT because the other carriers refused to do the necessary things to their systems to allow for that.

Some folks think that's worth the extra cost. Then there are the "it's a cool gadget" crowd who buy anything at any price - especially if it's made by Apple. BTW - the iPhone is made in China, Software designed and coded in India. Apple is just a design and marketing company now.

Absolute beginner?

[Anonymous Coward]

Sorry, there is no "19 days to being an expert programmer" book for beginners. Those type of books are meant for people who already know how to program, and simply need to learn the syntax of a new language.

Re:Newton's AAPL

[Anonymous Coward]

iPhone has had stereo bluetooth since 3.0.

Re:I am not surprised

[cabarius]

Huh? iPhone and Mac software is developed in Cupertino which last I heard is in California. If you don't believe me go to http://www.apple.com/jobs/us/corporate.html#software [apple.com] and see the locations of the job postings. Notice the large number are in Santa Clara Valley. Maybe in 2012 there will be a cataclysmic earth quake and we at apple will find ourselves in a new home.

Re:Android sales since 2007 are up ERROR%!

[GatesDA]

The 250% increase is in "demand," not sales or market share. That is, how many people planning on buying a phone soon are planning on Android? This statistic is unrelated to market share, and is perfectly valid for both old and new offerings.

From the article, 21% were going for an Android phone, compared to 28% for the iPhone.

Re:Umm...

[PopeRatzo]

Safari is ahead of Chrome^H^H^H Opera.

Not as of a few days ago. Chrome passed Safari in browser market share, according to digitaltrends.com.

Remember, that's a beta Google product vs Apple's flagship browser.

Safari isn't even the browser of choice for Mac users, for chrissake.

Re:I get the feeling Google sold their soul..

[mjwx]

Not only that, it seems like the next version of Android (2.0) has some sort of exclusivity to Motorola for now

You do know that 2.0 is in the AOSP (Android Open Source Program) so the code is freely available to anyone, there are community ROMs that run 2.0 on my HTC Dream albeit very badly. The problem is that other manufacturers are planning to deploy it on their new hardware lines not their old ones. Motorola just released earlier then Samsung or HTC (who just announced their 2010 line up).

Just make sure the carrier supports the phone

[Retardical_Sam]

I just hope the people buying these phones do the research. In Canada, Rogers (one of the big three cell providers here) has said that they're not going to provide an upgrade for the HTC Magic (literally the same phone as the myTouch3G) to Android 1.6 - they think 1.5 provides a "good user experience" and so they're not going to bother. Just how do you think all these people buying new phones are going to feel when they get it home and discover a bunch of the bells and whistles they've been promised don't work? And there are already apps out there that require 1.6. That's one big difference between Android phones and the iPhone - Rogers is supporting the iPhone.

Source: http://www.boygeniusreport.com/2009/12/19/rogers-htc-dream-and-magic-to-be-deprived-of-donut/ [boygeniusreport.com] (as well as the HTC website)

Re:I am not surprised

[Sheik Yerbouti]

Android has apps iPhone doesn't like built in voice navigation in google maps, google voice, google goggles, and tethering most of which Apple has outright denied for iPhone store and so will never be on the iPhone. I have both an iPhone 3G and a Moto droid just switched mostly because AT&T sucks big donkey dicks. And In some ways the Droid is better removable battery, upgradeable memory, slide out kb, 5MP camera and some of the apps are really great like Listen (streaming podcatcher). In some ways it's not as good as the iPhone some of the built in apps are only so so like the music app and no iTunes like synching desktop app for seamless integration of playlists and device backup Windows media player does not really count IMO. But overall I would give the nod to the Droid because of the Verizon network as AT&T just blows.

Re:Competition works

[Liquidrage]

Actually, it's in "you didn't read the fucking post". Apple's control over their development and market restricts apps and it's noticeable. Good example? Apple pulled Google voice from the store because the phone already made calls and had voicemail. That many like Google voice better didn't matter. And it's not just google stuff. SMS, virtual keyboards, etc... The Android market is open and full of stuff that competes with default pieces of the Android OS.

That Apple is free to do what they want, and that you and your grandma love it, isn't an issue. But as a geek it should be important to you that you have options. I don't care if the options are closed sourced pay apps or not. Notice the OP here said "real development".

Re:I am not surprised

[Algan]

My iPhone 3G lasts about 4 days if used smartly and sparingly. That is, Edge for voice, data through Wifi, only a few short calls per day, no bluetooth, no music/video/games. Pretty much the same functionality you got from your Palm Treo :)

Re:250%???

[basotl]

"21% said they expected to purchase an Android phone. That number represented a 250% increase over the 6% that pegged Android" From the summary. "4,000-plus American consumers surveyed in December" From the article.

Did you actually own a iPhone?

[SuperKendall]

Android has apps iPhone doesn't like built in voice navigation in google maps, google voice, google goggles, and tethering

You can buy a number of apps for voice navigation on the iPhone (or download Waze which is free), most of which work without a data connection (google maps is nice until you start traveling outside cities much, Waze does require data though). You can manage Google Voice using the web app on the iPhone, and the iPhone is not lacking for AR apps now.

As for tethering, it's not Apple involved there. iPhone OS 3.0 supports it, as do a number of carriers around the world - look right at AT&T if you wonder who is preventing you from tethering in the U.S. Granted to a consumer it doesn't matter if it's Apple or AT&T blocking that, but it's unfair to blame Apple for AT&T suckage.

I don't know when you owned an iPhone but your information is terribly out of date.

Re:At the top...of what?

[gabebear]

Where'd you get the 4%? Currently, it looks like Apple has 10+% of global smartphones [intomobile.com] and almost a third of the US market [boygeniusreport.com].

Re:Newton's AAPL

[harlows_monkeys]

It's interesting most of the reasons people have given you wrong.

• iTunes music doesn't have DRM.
• It's easy to make your own ringtones from any random MP3. Apple even gives instructions on their support site. You use Garageband to do it.
• iPhone price is comparable to other smart phones. Mac prices when a new model is introduced or revised are generally comparable to equivalent hardware from others. The difference is that Apple doesn't lower prices over the life of the model. Other manufacturers lower prices as models age. For instance, when I bought one of my Mac Pros, it was a good $1000 cheaper than anything comparable from Dell. A year later, the comparable Dell model was cheaper than my Mac Pro. The new top end iMac right now is not much above the cost of parts if you tried to put together an equivalent system yourself (the killer is the display).
• Experiment has shown that the touch screen keyboard is fine. It might take a few days or a week or two to get used to it and get proficient, though.
• iPhone supports stereo bluetooth since 3.0.

Re:Lies, damn lies, and...

[GooberToo]

The iPhone 3Gs was just released in June.

Re:Android sales since 2007 are up ERROR%!

[ozgood]

In context he was right... search engines retain information and he cant guarantee that google can keep the information that it gathers private. His inner politician must have been off that day because he should have used more PC words. But i actually applaud him for being honest, and saying something that we all know to be true... with the patriot act in play, no information is private or safe if the feds want it.

You're underlying issues arnt with google but with all search engines because they are required to keep this information.