Android is now the worlds best selling smartphone platform.

[Puddle Jumper]

Android moved nearly 33 million units last quarter

It's been a long time coming and should come as no surprise to anyone who has been tracking Android's meteoric rise -- both in the U.S. and worldwide -- that Google's mobile OS has finally outpaced Nokia's stalwart Symbian platform as the leading smartphone OS worldwide.

Engadget, citing figures by Canalys, reports that Android sold 33.3 million devices in the fourth quarter of 2010. That's a 13-million device spike from even the previous quarter, which saw 20.3 million Android devices moved. Now second-place Symbian sold 31 million devices in Q4 2010.

According to the Canalsy press release, the number of Android devices sold was slightly less than Engadget's reported figure, at 32.9 million -- still enough to retain the number one spot.

Canalys also pointed out that Nokia still retained its spot as the number one global smartphone vendor, dominating 28 percent of the market. Android can't compete in that department thanks to the fractured nature of its platform, allowing multiple vendors to support the OS -- for this reason, Netgear CEO Patrick Lo predicts Android will become the de facto standard on a range of consumer electronic devices. HTC and Samsung combined for almost 45 percent of Android device sales, with LG, Acer, and others rounding out the rest.

2010 also signaled huge year-over-year growth in terms of total worldwide smartphone sales. "The final quarter took shipments for the year to fractionally below 300 million units, with an annual growth rate of 80% over 2009," Canalys said.

The important U.S. market continued to dominate regionally, as well, with double the amount of smartphones sold than China. "Android was by far the largest smart phone platform in the US market in Q4 2010, with shipments of 12.1 million units – nearly three times those of RIM's BlackBerry devices," Canalys said.

The biggest loser, perhaps, was Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 platform. It appeared too late in the quarter to fully capture the holiday buying window. As a result, Microsoft's market share dipped from 8 percent in Q4 of 2009 to 5 percent in the same quarter of 2010.

Source: DailyTech - Android Overtakes Symbian as World's No. 1 Smartphone Platform

It's extremely impressive that Google was able to overthrow Nokia in such a short time.

 

[ncantara]

I'm not surprised...Google is going to be the next largest company in the world, much bigger than Microsoft I think. Have you watched the video on Google's headquarters and how they treat their employees? It's unreal how much free stuff they get just by working there.

 

[Yami]

****, that was fast.

 

[Oreo]

Source: DailyTech - Android Overtakes Symbian as World's No. 1 Smartphone Platform

It's extremely impressive that Google was able to overthrow Nokia in such a short time.

Considering Google make Software and Nokia make Hardware, it really isn't that impressive.

I wonder what would happen if apple made an iOS SDK for hardware manufacturers like HTC. I think we all know the answer to that one, don't we.

 

[KSoD]

No we dont. Cause i can flat out tell you that the Androids out sell. I have personally had nothing but bad problems with iPhones. I had to call Verizon from their brand new $300 iPhone cause they put that as our new Store Phone to take care of a Customer Service problem. Lets see, no more than 2 minutes in the call dropped. Called back, was told they they couldnt hear me and that i was breaking up. From the brand new product. Yeah great selling point as i was standing there in front of the customer who wanted to buy 5 of them. I got so fed up that i picked up my Captivate out of my pocket and made the call.

Guess how this story ends? You betcha. They turned around and purchased 5 Fascinates which just updated to Froyo with full support for Flash. Just one of the 20 million+ smart phones devices that has support for flash built in.

Not to mention the ability to get more free apps. Yeah i still have a hard time trying to explain to someone that they have to pay $1 for Angry Birds when i get it for free. Yet another great selling point for the iPhone and their App Stores.

I know more people who have jumped ship from the iPhone to an Android than i know who have jumped from an Android to an iPhone. Working for a Retailer who sells phones daily, that is saying considerably more than someone who already vouched that they love all things Apple. My proof is in my sales of every other product. We got 50 Verizons iPhones in. 2 have sold since it was released. I sold 5 Android phones in a single sale.

Now that i think about it your right. I do know how it would play out. Android would still out sell cause they offer more to customers for free than Apple.

 

[Yami]

Agreed on all points Mak, though tbh I'd prefer to pay for Angry Birds, to support the developer and get rid of the (pretty small) ads that appear in the corner.

 

[Puddle Jumper]

Considering Google make Software and Nokia make Hardware, it really isn't that impressive.

I wonder what would happen if apple made an iOS SDK for hardware manufacturers like HTC. I think we all know the answer to that one, don't we.

Apple tried that with Mac OS and the company nearly died afterwords. Besides the only thing Apple has going for it is uniform hardware that allows them to optimize their OS for it.

Apple can't even get the newer versions of iOS to work on their own iPhone 3g, I think it's a bit optimistic to think that they could get it to work flawlessly on the wide variety of hardware Android offers.

 

[35g700]

Now that iOS is available on more than just ATT's network I wouldn't be surprised to see iOS move closer to what android's is, but android does have a big advantage over iOS because there are far more devices that run android, and android is on more carriers than iOS.

I've gotta get a new phone soon though, this Motorola Crush is one of the most annoying phones I've ever had, I'm getting very sick of these poorly designed Motorola, LG, and Nokia phone OS's. Maybe we'll be able to move to Verizon and get the iPhone 5 when that comes out.

 

[Puddle Jumper]

Now that iOS is available on more than just ATT's network I wouldn't be surprised to see iOS move closer to what android's is, but android does have a big advantage over iOS because there are far more devices that run android, and android is on more carriers than iOS.

I've gotta get a new phone soon though, this Motorola Crush is one of the most annoying phones I've ever had, I'm getting very sick of these poorly designed Motorola, LG, and Nokia phone OS's. Maybe we'll be able to move to Verizon and get the iPhone 5 when that comes out.

The iPhone 4 on Verizon has hardly been a success, as Mak said they haven't sold many at his store and plenty of other sites have said the same thing. Besides that only affects the US market, it won't help Apple gain any ground in the rest of the world.

You don't need to switch to Verizon to get a good smartphone, all of the major carriers in the US and many of the smaller ones as well offer good Android and/or Windows Phone 7 smartphones.

 

[35g700]

The iPhone 4 on Verizon has hardly been a success, as Mak said they haven't sold many at his store and plenty of other sites have said the same thing. Besides that only affects the US market, it won't help Apple gain any ground in the rest of the world.

You don't need to switch to Verizon to get a good smartphone, all of the major carriers in the US and many of the smaller ones as well offer good Android and/or Windows Phone 7 smartphones.

US Cellular doesn't have any Windows Phone 7 smartphones available, and the android phones available aren't very good. I believe that our contract ends in June, and Verizon has a much bigger selection than US Cellular.