Google Android phones more popular than iPhone

17. The comparisons here are ridiculous.

First off, you are comparing Apples to Oranges, literally, and no pun intended.

This is effectively a comparison of an Operating System against an actual device. Android is available on many more devices than Apple has released. That alone would lead to Android taking market share, but there is a lot more to this story in favor of Apple.

As the article states, Android sales compared to Apple sales was 27 Percent for Android and 23% for Apple. Normally, this would be a damning number for Apple, but what is not being talked about here is that Android, along with being available on many more devices, is also available on all Networks, whereas the iPhone is still only available on AT&T.

So, AT&T iPhone sales, were only 4 Percentage points below Android, when Android has a vastly larger market to sell to. What happens the day AT&T loses exclusivity on the iPhone, and it is offered on all other networks?

If 23% of sales were iPhone, and that is only on the AT&T Network, we would have to assume a similar percentage of sales on T-Mobile, Verizon, and Sprint.

If iPhone was available on all networks, the numbers would be much different.

Android phones are available on AT&T, but are being crushed by iPhone sales. The same will happen the day all the other carriers get the iPhone.

But again, this is a comparison of an Operating System against a Device. A proper comparison would be to compare the iPhone X against the Android Device X. iPhone 4 sales against Droid X sales would be a fair comparison. Or iPhone 3GS vs HTC Evo.

When is someone going to do a comparison like this, and actually present some interesting information, instead of piling on Apple, claiming a loss of Market Share, but comparing to the Operating System that is available on at least 15 phones today.

16. The bottom line is competition is healthy for the consumers. I know all the iPhone lot and Droid lot want their phone to be the biggest and baddest but frankly I couldn't care less.

I have been using droid for a couple of years now and just upgraded to a Galaxy S, it's brilliant in my opinion but I am sure I could list issues as any droid or iPhone user could too.

It should be interesting to see what Microsoft add to the competition. And, of course, RIM are still out there doing their bit too.

And I'm sorry, off topic but I have to respond, I run Ubuntu, Windows 7, Windows XP and have a Mac with OSX too. Frankly Windows 7 is the os I use the most. I really can't see Linux making the jump to the mainstream until software vendors start really taking notice.

And don't even start me on Cloud computing, Apples crusade towards streaming iTunes, iOS on Apple desktop and laptop hardware or Microsofts push towards cloud too.

Introducing Cloud computing beiing forced on a poor, at best, network in the UK would be a nightmare for many isolated areas. And when I say isolated I mean a two minute drive down the road can be the difference between up to 20mb speeds to under 1mb speeds. Cloud computing? Pah!

15. @randomdog said

To publish an app for Android you need

1. An Android phone OR a PC/Laptop running any OS.

2. App Inventor (which is free, when it comes out of beta)

3. A tiny bit of common sense.

Not completly true.

App inventor uses Java blocks mainly for code work and logic. Its true that the interface can be made upfront, but that is the same as the tools in Apples Xcode.

Also you still need a market place to sell an app, which is supplied as part of the $100 dev deal with Apple.

Also you get Apples App store marketing machine as well, including the very simple way you get reimbursed should you want to sell the app.

And of course App Builder is a very generic product. I assume like I you are on the beta as well so you will know the limitations of hardware supported, lack of direct control of the devices graphic libraries, low level file structures, IO controls and the like.

14. @randomdog "Apple might be 'holding their own' for now but without radical changes to the entire iOS way of life they'll be dead in the water within months."

Okay, that is about the funniest thing I have read in a good long time!

13. Android is the mobile OS of the future, it's just going to keep growing and growing while over in the apple camp the very founding philosophies behind the iPhone actually PREVENT it from growing past a certain point. Multitasking took far too long to be added in the name of stability, it's never going to get flash without Jobs sounding like a total ****** in his press release for it and developers are just getting sick of it.

At the end of the day it's the apps that make or break a smartphone, Apples censorship of the app store is only going to get worse over the years and let's not forget that to develop for iOS you need..

1. A mac

2. A licence to publish on the App Store (£100ish IIRC)

3. Already have extensive knowledge of programming.

To publish an app for Android you need

1. An Android phone OR a PC/Laptop running any OS.

2. App Inventor (which is free, when it comes out of beta)

3. A tiny bit of common sense.

Apple might be 'holding their own' for now but without radical changes to the entire iOS way of life they'll be dead in the water within months. Phones are the most rapidly changing technology at the moment, Android is the only OS to have the capability to be ready for that change as soon as it happens.

12. It would be interesting to see the stats for a country such as Canada, where all major carriers have the iPhone and most have Android phones too.

I suspect that many people have bought Android phones in the US simply because they aren't on AT&T.

Having said that, I use Android (HTC Hero) for work and an iPhone for personal use. The Sense UI makes quick checks of email and sms so easy - it's just a glance - that the thought of drilling down into the email inbox, then into the email just to see if you care about it seems like such a waste of time. Android itself has performed very well, is very stable and the apps are every bit as useful as any iPhone app.

The iPhone model of sync'ing with your computer is, in my opinion, better for personal use, entertainment, copying my own movies, etc as iTunes sorts and organizes everything, manages Podcasts, etc very easily. It's comparatively difficult to do things automatically on Android. You can still be fully functional, it's just more labour intensive.

In the end, I think Android could put pressure on business phones such as BB and Windows Phone X whereas Apple will keep eating the feature phone market.

11. It's funny how the word Android get all the apple fan boys backs up!! Android must be doing something right!

10. Adroid is being compared to macintosh because mac is an internal publisher.This is why they failed against microsoft in the 90's.. android in essence is taking over the market place...the point of comparison..If more users are using android and nothing damn well runs on the new Iphones such as flash. mac selfish values will simply have them fighting for there lives again. android is the only operative platform for smart phones that has had improved market share this year.All other 7 major platforms have lost almost 20% market share.andorid is cheaper , more powerfull and does not discriminate against rivals by banning technology compatibility. And any1 can download it for free. Iphone wannabe? Please apple is going back to it's origions with it's mini die hard fan base within the next 5 years while google will dominate all and microsoft limps allong with their desktop operating system as people move to cloud computing on linux and other

9. The last paragragh speaks volumes about the upsurge in Android take up. Its all to easy to point out the negatives in iphone hardware and OS BUT it has changed the game and will continue to do so because for all the positives of the android handsets none of the manufacturers have come up with a "game changer". I adopted android early and quite frankly I'm not impressed with the fragmentation issue. The various manufacturers are killing the "Google experience" with the almost immediate obsolescence of every model produced by custom skinning them. Motorola are the chief culprits by bringing out replacement models within 9 months of the original(droid)! The fact that you can get an android phone for £79.99(pulse mini) makes it a no-brainer that the android take-up will continue to outperform other OS's but Its not a measure of the quality of hardware or an indication of why people are really buying into android- put simply there isn't a cheaper OS than a free one.

8. @si_smith

yeh, my HTC Desire destroys my iPhone4, apart from speed, functionality, quality of apps, media playback, 3rd party accessory integration and resale value.

At least Froyo gives me wifi hotspots, like MiWi on my iPhone but a bit better. Love that.

Oh and style, yes its flimsy plastic back always fills me with confidence every time I have to take it off to pull the battery to take out my of so flexible SD card, because of course you cant pull an SD card while the phone is on in Froyo as it uses SD storage to hold some (no all) apps.

7. Why is the comparison invalid? Only the iPhone runs iOS, so effectively it is iOS versus Android.

People are choosing Android phones. HTC, LG, Sony, etc all make non Android phones but consumers are going for the Droid models.

These are people who will be well aware of the iPhone but for whatever reason are not buying it. Maybe for price, maybe because they don't use iTunes, maybe they don't like something about the iPhone itself.

But if Android didn't exist I would expect iPhone sales to be higher.

So this is news and it is significant. For anyone with a droid phone it means it is far more likely that better apps from bigger names will appear, banks, etc, which is what we want.

6. I tend to find most iPhone users have never even heard of Android and are amazed someone would consider a non-Apple smartphone. It doesn't work the same the other way though.

5. This is non news, anyone that's used a recent HTC Android phone already knows it totally obliterates anything Apple has ever made, not just in hardware, but in software, functionality and style.

4. "So while the majority is winning against the minority at the moment, it is still impressive that Apple's iPhone family is nearly holding its own against the entire Android spectrum."

I think you should look at how long Android has been on the market in comparison to the iPhone. Also, if Apple were not so greedy they could allow other manufactures to run OS4 on their machines, it seems history is repeating it self (Microsoft v Macintosh)

3. Good point hatch87

On the whole Android hardware bests Apple, as it has can be be so diverse, cheap and nasty if you want and expensive and feature packed if thats your thing.

Apple products are always premium priced because people will pay for it. The cheap and nasty market is not what Apple is looking at (at the moment at least). Maybe the iPod is the 'cheap' way into the app store for Apple App fans.

But Apple still has the mind share, and that wont shift for a while yet.

Android really needs a bunch of killer apps (not facebook, twitter and web browsers) to get it into the peoples perception as being nothing but an iPhone wannabe platform.

2. The thing is, they are almost comparing a phone to a phone operating system. Google don't make any of the hardware. As Apple only use their Software on Apple products its difficult to compare the two in terms of sales.

1. "So while the majority is winning against the minority at the moment, it is still impressive that Apple's iPhone family is nearly holding its own against the entire Android spectrum." - How come Apple is always on top? Even when Android is ahead in sales it somehow still manages to loose again. Lucky thing that Apple has more "quality" apps too.