Is Android stealing the iPhone buzz?

David Heath
Wednesday, 06 January 2010 17:39

Opinion and Analysis

A recent survey of mobile phone users has shown a sharp increase in Android awareness.  This is expected to translate into market share; Apple, take note - the buzz you hear is not your latest ring-tone!

Earlier today, my colleague Alex Zaharov-Reutt discussed the release of Google's new Nexus One smartphone.  If I might put words in his mouth, although generally impressed with the overall feature-set, he was somewhat under-whelmed with the lack of significant advance over current iPhone models.

That may-well be true, but unlike the iPhone, the Google phone is based on a common platform (the Android operating system) that is being adopted by a variety of manufacturers.  That should lead to a groundswell of models and features with an outcome of more rapid evolution.

If the rumours are true, the Nexus One is either mostly or fully developed by HTC (one of the leaders in smartphone development) and may-well represent their preferred evolution direction.  However, Motorola's new Droid smartphone is also based on the Android platform and is receiving plenty of support.

Quantifying that support is a recent survey from ChangeWave Research describing rapidly increased awareness and desire amongst intending smartphone purchasers to seriously consider Android-based devices.  Alex also passed his jaundiced eye over this data but seemed to see different things that I did in the same data!

Comparing surveys taken in September and December, ChangeWave observed a huge increase in Android as a preferred mobile phone operating system, from 6% to 21% amongst people intending buying a smartphone within the next 90 days.  Obviously, this reflects the hype surrounding Android, but to a major extent, this is the same hypewave that Apple rode with the iPhone.

In answering the same question, iPhone support dropped from 32% to 28%, Windows Mobile 9% to 6% and PalmOS 6% down to 3%.  The only other rise was RIM's Blackberry, increasing from 17% to 18%.  These figures make a very strong suggestion that Apple, RIM and Google / Android will be the 'big three' in the short-to-middle term.

Despite all the hype, Apple's iPhone is not the market share leader.