Android Dominates Smartphone Market in Q3; iPhone Most Popular Hardware

[Rob Williams]

The Nielsen research firm has just released its Q3 smartphone report, and while nothing has dramatically changed since Q2, the stats still prove interesting. As I'm sure most people would expect, Apple has retained the lead as being the largest hardware vendor, securing 28.3% of smartphone shipments during the quarter. Research In Motion coasts behind with 17.8%, while HTC settles in at third with 15.0%.

Read the rest of our post and then discuss it here!

 

[MacMan]

Neilson doens't take the iPhone 4S into account, I believe, as it was only recently introduced, but other surveys are now beginning to show that it is making a huge difference at least in the U.K. where the iPhone has now shot well ahead of Android, as can be seen in the link below, so your correct that the next results should be interesting indeed:

http://allthingsd.com/20111128/iphone-4s-surges-in-battle-of-britain/

 

[Rob Williams]

That report covers Q3, so no, the 4S would not be included (4S was released at the start of Q4).

As for that article you linked, it's epic just for the Monty Python picture alone!

But going further, that "shot ahead of Android" conclusion is based on one month only, and as the article goes onto state:

"Taking a longer view of the 12 weeks ended October 30, Android still leads with a 46 percent share to the iPhone’s 27.8 percent."

It makes total sense that the 4S sales would surge in the first month of sales. The other thing to be taken into consideration is that Ice Cream Sandwich is due out in a week (in North America), which has the potential to push Android even further up the charts.