Port Washington, New York (PRWEB) December 13, 2011
According to The NPD Group, a leading market research company, Androids operating system (OS) share of smartphone sales grew to command more than half of the U.S. smartphone market (53 percent) from January through October 2011, as Apples iOS share grew to reach 29 percent of the market, and RIMs OS share declined to 11 percent. RIM and other companies that were formerly on top of NPDs smartphone rankings, however, have made critical business decisions this past year in a quest to shore up their U.S. smartphone businesses.
The competitive landscape for smartphones, which has been reshaped by Apple and Google, has ultimately forced every major handset provider through a major transition, said Ross Rubin, executive director, Connected Intelligence for The NPD Group. For many of them, 2012 will be a critical year in assessing how effective their responses have been.
Google acquires Motorola
Motorolas share of smartphone sales once reached more than a third of the smartphone market (36 percent) in the fourth quarter (Q4) of 2006; however, the companys smartphone market share dropped as low as 1 percent by Q3 2009. After adopting Android, Motorolas share of smartphone sales rose to 16 percent of the market in Q4 2010 before settling back down to 12 percent by Q3 2011. Android has helped Motorola climb back into the smartphone market; now, though, Google will seek to use Motorolas patent pool to help protect other Android licensees, according to Rubin.
The fall of RIM
Few companies have felt the impact of the shift to touch user interfaces and larger screen sizes as negatively as RIM, but the company is beginning anew with a strong technical foundation and many paths to the platform, said Rubin. Back in Q2 2006, RIM comprised half of all smartphone sales; however, by Q3 2011 the company had fallen to 8 percent. As it prepares to introduce smartphones on its next-generation platform, RIM has already made some important incremental improvements this year with the release of the BlackBerry 7 operating system. RIM is now is ranked fifth among smartphone OEMs, behind Apple, HTC, Samsung, and Motorola.
Nokia does Windows
One of the biggest news stories of the year was Nokias agreement with Microsoft to use the Windows Phone operating system on its smartphones. Nokia and Microsoft must build from almost nothing to carve out success between the consistency of the iPhone and the flexibility of Android, according to Rubin. Even though Microsofts former smartphone operating system, Windows Mobile, peaked at 50 percent of smartphone sales in Q2 2007, Windows Phone 7 by comparison has not achieved more than 2 percent of smartphone sales since launching in Q4 of 2010.
Information this press release is from Mobile Phone Track and Smartphone Track, both of which report on the activities of U.S. consumers, age 18 and older, who reported purchasing a mobile phone or smartphone. NPD does not track corporate/enterprise mobile phone purchases.
About The NPD Group, Inc.
The NPD Group is the leading provider of reliable and comprehensive consumer and retail information for a wide range of industries. Today, more than 1,800 manufacturers, retailers, and service companies rely on NPD to help them drive critical business decisions at the global, national, and local market levels. NPD helps our clients to identify new business opportunities and guide product development, marketing, sales, merchandising, and other functions. Information is available for the following industry sectors: automotive, beauty, entertainment, fashion, food, home and office, sports, technology, toys, video games, and wireless. For more information, contact us, visit http://www.npd.com/, or follow us Twitter at https://twitter.com/npdgroup.
###
