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Cry Havoc
08-02-2010, 11:42 AM
Android smart phone shipments grow 886% year-on-year in Q2 2010
- Nokia retains smart phone leadership position, but competitors close the gap
Palo Alto, Singapore and Reading (UK) – Monday, 2 August 2010

Nokia retained a substantial lead in the worldwide smart phone market in Q2 2010, achieving a 38% market share. The vendor shipped a record 23.8 million smart phones during the quarter, representing growth of 41% on a year ago, as it focused on delivering affordable smart phone offerings to the market, such as its popular 5230 touch-screen handset, based on the Symbian operating system (OS). But Nokia's market dominance is not as unassailable as it once was, with its performance outpaced by growth in the smart phone market as a whole.

The smart phone market grew by 64% annually worldwide in Q2 2010. At the same time, shipments of RIM's BlackBerry smart phones grew by 41%. Helped by the continued strong performances of devices such as the Curve 8520, it was once again the second placed vendor with an 18% market share, while also retaining its leadership position in North and Latin America. Despite a period of turbulent PR, initial shipments of the iPhone 4 were predictably strong and contributed to Apple's 61% growth and worldwide market share of 13% for the quarter. But analysis of Canalys' detailed, globally consistent data shows it is the collective growth of Android device shipments across a range of handset vendors' portfolios that is most remarkable. With key products from HTC, Motorola, Samsung, Sony Ericsson and LG, among others, shipments of smart phones running the Google-backed Android operating system grew an impressive 886% in Q2 2010.

'The latest release of our detailed and complete country-level smart phone shipment data for Q2 2010 clearly reveals the impressive momentum Android is gaining in markets around the world,' said Canalys VP and Principal Analyst, Chris Jones, commenting on the publication. 'In the United States, for example, we have seen the largest carrier, Verizon Wireless, heavily promoting high-profile Android devices, such as the Droid by Motorola and the Droid Incredible by HTC. These products have been well received by the market, with consumers eager to download and engage with mobile applications and services, such as Internet browsing, social networking, games and navigation.' The United States smart phone market grew 41% year on year. It is the largest smart phone market in the world by a significant margin, with 14.7 million units accounting for 23% of global shipments in Q2 2010. Android devices collectively represented a 34% share of the US market in the quarter, and with growth of 851% Android became the largest smart phone platform in the country.

US and China smart phone market

'The story in the Asia Pacific region is similarly optimistic around Android,' noted Senior Analyst, TY Lau. 'Android devices are gaining good traction in markets such as mainland China and South Korea, with growing numbers of consumers wanting more sophisticated smart phones.' China was the world's second largest smart phone market in Q2 2010 for the sixth consecutive quarter, with shipments of 6.9 million units representing 11% of the worldwide total. Android devices combined reached almost 475,000 units in Q2 2010 from no presence in the country a year ago. It is also important to note that China Mobile is committed to developing its own platform, OMS, based on Android, and an additional 174,000 smart phones shipped in the quarter running OMS. 'Given Google's substantial involvement in the Open Handset Alliance (OHA), that its relationship with the Chinese authorities appears to have improved recently, and that its operating licence has been renewed, will help reduce concerns that tensions could have an impact on the potential for the OHA-based Android and OMS platforms in the country, particularly among vendors that have committed resources to producing Android devices for the Chinese market,' added Lau. 'Nokia's Symbian devices continue to dominate the market, but other vendors are clearly making good headway with Android in China. Motorola and Samsung, as well as local vendors, such as Dopod, Lenovo and Huawei, are achieving promising volumes on the platform, and Android devices held a 7% share in China this quarter.' Despite a close relationship with its strategic partner Dopod, HTC, the world's leading Android device vendor, announced last week that it is entering the Chinese market with its own-branded smart phones. With a population of 1.3 billion, China represents a market with enormous growth potential and Canalys expects Android to be among the platforms that will drive growth in the coming quarters and years.

Growth in the worldwide smart phone market reflects the increasing importance of smart phones in device vendors' and operators' handset portfolios, as growing numbers of consumers appear eager to engage with mobile applications and connected services. 'Expect to see smart phones accounting for a growing proportion of the wider mobile phone market as they become increasingly affordable to more customers,' said Canalys Senior Analyst, Pete Cunningham. 'By 2013, smart phones will grow to represent over 27% of shipments worldwide, with the proportion in some developed markets in Western Europe surpassing 60% and 48% in North America.'

Canalys' annual smart phone market trends report, now in its ninth successful year, pulls together, in a concise format, qualitative analysis of key market trends, top-level market share and shipment estimates for the leading vendors, comparative analysis of vendors' performance and evaluation of their strengths and weaknesses, and forecasts for future market development. The new Canalys smart phone market trends report is now available. More details can be found at www.canalys.com/services/reports.

Canalys analysts in Asia Pacific, the Americas and EMEA are available for press interviews on topics related to mobile devices and the growing ecosystem for mobile applications and services. To arrange an interview, please send a request to [email protected]. Analyst biographies, with photos, are available here.

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Crazy. Of course, the Droid didn't release until mid-late last year, so that helps explain some of the numbers. It's only a matter of time until "Market" (likely) becomes the preferred development platform for cell phones.

It's going to be interesting to see how the iPhone 4, the Blackberry 6, and Windows 7 Mobile affect the percentages, but unless the iPhone goes to Verizon the BB6 completely reinvents itself, and Win7Mo is STELLAR, Android will soon dominate. The Droid 2 should be a massive launch with great sales as well. One big phone after another lined up for Android.

leemajors
08-02-2010, 12:35 PM
I don't think the Android market will catch up to the App Store anytime soon.

Cry Havoc
08-02-2010, 01:02 PM
I don't think the Android market will catch up to the App Store anytime soon.

Why would it not? It's an open-source system, the chances of having an app rejected are almost nil, and the development fees are $25, vs. $99 for an Apple developers license.

I think in 12-18 months, Android will be tied, if not ahead of the App store in volume of content.

Quantity is another concern, but neither store could be said to have a high percentage of quality apps, sadly. I had to wade through the muck and the mire as much with my 3G as I do now with my Evo. Kind of sad, really, but it makes it possible to find some real gems in either store if you do a little searching.

This isn't really even a debatable situation, really. Android has a completely unfair advantage, because there are no free/cheap iPhones, so based on that alone, there will eventually be a much higher percentage of phones using Android than iPhone. When that balance tips enough, developers will migrate or co-develop for both platforms.

To be honest, it might not matter. I mean, how many apps can you develop before it becomes completely redundant, anyway?

Drachen
08-02-2010, 01:18 PM
Why would it not? It's an open-source system, the chances of having an app rejected are almost nil, and the development fees are $25, vs. $99 for an Apple developers license.

I think in 12-18 months, Android will be tied, if not ahead of the App store in volume of content.

Quantity is another concern, but neither store could be said to have a high percentage of quality apps, sadly. I had to wade through the muck and the mire as much with my 3G as I do now with my Evo. Kind of sad, really, but it makes it possible to find some real gems in either store if you do a little searching.

This isn't really even a debatable situation, really. Android has a completely unfair advantage, because there are no free/cheap iPhones, so based on that alone, there will eventually be a much higher percentage of phones using Android than iPhone. When that balance tips enough, developers will migrate or co-develop for both platforms.

To be honest, it might not matter. I mean, how many apps can you develop before it becomes completely redundant, anyway?

Two points: as to the Market. I too believe that it will overtake the app store for the reasons mentioned as well as because google is coming out with a modular programming software suite that is meant to make it so kids can develop apps. Will this create a lot of trash apps? Yes, but as has been stated both stores have a glut of this. The other thing this will do will be to get people interested in going further and learning more about how to program apps. Google will be building a developer base from the ground up. I think long term this creates a great deal more quality apps for the market. (note I said long-term)

As for the cheap phones means Android will have more, I just want to say: even Cricket will be offering an android phone this month (some Kyocera).

ElNono
08-02-2010, 01:44 PM
As a developer, we're continuing to evaluate Android as a platform. We've gotten a handful of requests for our flagship app to be ported over. We just can't justify it yet.
There's some things Android will have to improve in order to gain ground:

- Their dev system feels ancient compared to XCode. I know a lot of people that always used Eclipse that are comfortable with it, but for newcomers, the lack of integration for things such as visual UI design is really lacking, which translates into being more time consuming to develop for it.

- The Google checkout country support is terrible. You can only sell in 13 countries. Compare to over 80 countries for the App store.

- The multitude of devices and features makes it harder to develop for too. There's somewhat of the same problem with the iPhone/iPad, but the difference is that Apple provides a really nice compatibility layer for the UI that minimizes the detection and changes. I expect Android to improve on this also as time goes on.

leemajors
08-02-2010, 02:05 PM
- The multitude of devices and features makes it harder to develop for too. There's somewhat of the same problem with the iPhone/iPad, but the difference is that Apple provides a really nice compatibility layer for the UI that minimizes the detection and changes. I expect Android to improve on this also as time goes on.

This is probably the main hindrance. For smaller dev companies, not having to test on a multitude of devices and hardware for compatibility makes it difficult to justify expense in making an Android app. Does the Android Marketplace automatically sort by what your device can run?

Wild Cobra
08-02-2010, 02:07 PM
Android experiences 886% growth from Q2 2009 to Q2 2010
Well, considering the Android OS was released 2/9/09, that makes sense.

Actually, I wonder if that 886% is below expectations?

12 months of growth compared to an initial 7 weeks... seems like weak growth to me.

ElNono
08-02-2010, 03:09 PM
This is probably the main hindrance. For smaller dev companies, not having to test on a multitude of devices and hardware for compatibility makes it difficult to justify expense in making an Android app. Does the Android Marketplace automatically sort by what your device can run?

I didn't get that far with their dev kit. I know you can specify which devices you want to target, so I would think they are in charge of filtering out the Apps that don't run in your device, much like Apple does.

leemajors
08-06-2010, 07:44 AM
http://gizmodo.com/5606170/symbian-hey-google-we-sell-300000-phones-every-day

Nathan Explosion
08-06-2010, 07:58 AM
The multitude of devices and features makes it harder to develop for too. There's somewhat of the same problem with the iPhone/iPad, but the difference is that Apple provides a really nice compatibility layer for the UI that minimizes the detection and changes. I expect Android to improve on this also as time goes on.

I've heard this is one of the major reasons that the Android Market hasn't compared with the App store. With an iPhone, a developer knows what he's getting. He knows the screen size is staying the same, the OS will pretty much be the same and the specs will not vary too much.

With an Android phone, the hardware changes by the company, the screen sizes are all over the place (even within the same phone maker like HTC with the Hero and Evo) and the specs are too varied to make it easy for a small developer to offer an app. It can discourage people from trying to make great apps for free because of the work involved.

I did find it interesting that Nokia had the biggest share in the market because I always heard that Blackberry was the leader based on the business uses of the phone. It might be that Blackberry leads the US market.

Another thing that I find probably contributes to the growth of the Android OS is the wide variety of phones that offer Android across all platforms. The iPhone OS 4 is only offered on the iPhone and only with AT&T. Android can be found on all carriers and is made by pretty much every phone maker.

In the interest of full disclosure CH, if the iPhone hadn't come out when it did (4 days after my birthday making it a "sign" that I should finally treat myself to something good), I probably would have gotten the HTC Aria. It's a cool looking phone that can do lots of things in a very small package (remember, I don't like having giant phones hence my biggest gripe with the Evo).

I also thought the Motorola Backflip was a decent phone, except for the fact that the keyboard is always exposed (and apparently the Motoblur UI sucks).

Cry Havoc
08-06-2010, 09:41 AM
Well, considering the Android OS was released 2/9/09, that makes sense.

Initial release 21 October 2008

Fail.

WC brings inaccurate information to a thread to support his own skewed thoughts again. Shocking.


I've heard this is one of the major reasons that the Android Market hasn't compared with the App store. With an iPhone, a developer knows what he's getting. He knows the screen size is staying the same, the OS will pretty much be the same and the specs will not vary too much.

The specs won't vary much? The original iPhone (and the 3g) had a 412 mhz processor, while the iPhone 4 has an 800 mhz processor that's specifically designed by Apple for the device.

Next year's iPhone, if it isn't drastically more powerful than the 4 (and thus causing an even greater market disparity between versions) will be out of date the day it goes on sale. For 3 years, what you said was applicable because there was no real threat to the iPhone as far as development goes. Now, there is, so they can't rest on their laurels from a hardware standpoint, unless they want to try to emulate Nintendo.

To be honest, this is going to put even more pressure on Apple to innovate. I know they're good at developing products that are ahead of their time, but they are in real danger of facing the same situation they did in the 80s and 90s, being confined as a company to a very small group of dedicated users, rather than a dominant force in the industry. The first 3 iPhones were unarguably the best cell phone you could have in the United States (software AND hardware wise, for the most part), and in a very short time, Android has caught them in hardware, and is gaining rapidly in software as well.

Because despite Apple's innovation, when you give someone one great option or 15 options, some meh, some decent, some very good, and some excellent, the consumer will default to what fits them best. And right now, the sex appeal of the iPhone and the solid performance of the OS is what's keeping them in the game. They are going to have to do a LOT to maintain that advantage when every carrier in the world is now gunning for them (aside from perhaps Nokia).


With an Android phone, the hardware changes by the company, the screen sizes are all over the place (even within the same phone maker like HTC with the Hero and Evo) and the specs are too varied to make it easy for a small developer to offer an app. It can discourage people from trying to make great apps for free because of the work involved.

Most apps in both markets run fine on a variety of screens. The only exception to this would likely be games. But that's another ball of wax entirely. Since the Galaxy S is around 4 times the performance of the iPhone or the Evo, the Android market in a year will likely support phones that are closing in on Ps2 quality graphics. Apple either has to hope the casual gaming market will hold, or begin to differentiate more between it's devices.


I did find it interesting that Nokia had the biggest share in the market because I always heard that Blackberry was the leader based on the business uses of the phone. It might be that Blackberry leads the US market.

This is correct. Nokia has fared very poorly in the U.S. since the early 00s, but they are the worldwide leader in sales.


Another thing that I find probably contributes to the growth of the Android OS is the wide variety of phones that offer Android across all platforms. The iPhone OS 4 is only offered on the iPhone and only with AT&T. Android can be found on all carriers and is made by pretty much every phone maker.

This is the other confusing decision to me that's been made by Apple. Their phone is so good... why would they want to limit it to one carrier? It makes no sense that the iPhone isn't on Verizon and probably even Sprint as well. At the very least, it should be on T-Mobile, since they run the same GSM technology that AT&T does.


In the interest of full disclosure CH, if the iPhone hadn't come out when it did (4 days after my birthday making it a "sign" that I should finally treat myself to something good), I probably would have gotten the HTC Aria. It's a cool looking phone that can do lots of things in a very small package (remember, I don't like having giant phones hence my biggest gripe with the Evo).

What about the Galaxy S? It's 4". That's still pretty big, but not a large difference from the iPhone, IMO.


I also thought the Motorola Backflip was a decent phone, except for the fact that the keyboard is always exposed (and apparently the Motoblur UI sucks).

The backflip was a really sweet idea. I agree with you about the Motoblur. It's awful.

Nathan Explosion
08-06-2010, 10:04 AM
What about the Galaxy S? It's 4". That's still pretty big, but not a large difference from the iPhone, IMO.

I've seen the Samsung phones. They are closer to the Evo's and Droid X's than the iPhone in terms of size. I like the fact that they have AMOLED screens. My last phone had one and the color and contrast on it was beautiful.

leemajors
08-06-2010, 01:43 PM
CH, the iPhone 4 has a 1GHz processor.

Cry Havoc
08-06-2010, 02:17 PM
CH, the iPhone 4 has a 1GHz processor.

It's an estimate. Apple has not disclosed the clock speed of the iPhone 4.

The iPhone 4 is powered by the Apple A4 chip, which was designed by Intrinsity and, like all previous iPhone models, manufactured by Samsung.[35] This system-on-a-chip is composed of a Cortex-A8 CPU integrated with a PowerVR SGX 535 GPU.[36] The Apple A4 is also used in the iPad where it is clocked at its rated speed of 1 GHz.[5] The clock speed in the iPhone 4 has not been disclosed. All previous models of the iPhone have underclocked the CPU, which typically extends battery life and lowers heat dissipation.

It's a 1 ghz chip, but that doesn't mean it's running at 1 ghz. But you're right, I shouldn't have guessed at 800 mhz. It does further my point about the existing disparity between the iPhone 4 and the previous models, though, especially the 2g and 3g.

ElNono
08-06-2010, 06:29 PM
The iPhone 4 processor can do 1Ghz, but it's clocked at less. It's easy to tell because the iPad runs the same at 1Ghz and feels faster. Around 800Mhz would be a safe assumption.
That said, processor speed is really an irrelevant number. Most of these processors can speed step to different values depending on the load. Same thing with the GPU. (and thus the rooting of the Android and the different tweaked kernels)

Furthermore, the software architecture is quite different, so it's not a linear scale between CPU speed and software performance. For example, Android runs mostly in Java, and they didn't have a true JIT up until Froyo, and even with a JIT, while faster than interpreted code, it's still suboptimal compared to actual native code. Things like automatic garbage collection, while nice from a programming standpoint, eat up cycles to run (and it's the reason it's not enabled on the iPhone)

On the iPhone everything that runs is native (except javascript, which runs on a JIT, but it's not really used to run apps), but Objective C has a beefier runtime than plain C or C++. You also have (at least on the iPhone 4) a bigger resolution, which means you need to move more data to the GPU, and adds up.

That said, both architectures allow you to write directly in assembler if you want to. They also provide most of their libraries and the core of the system in C, which is fast enough.

As far as the older iPhone models, they were underclocked too. The 2G and 3G iPhones had a 620MHz Samsung CPU underclocked to 412MHz. The 3GS had a 800MHz underclocked to 600MHz. The reason for underclocking has everything to do with battery power. That's why the iPhone always ranks at the top in battery life.

koriwhat
08-06-2010, 08:43 PM
fanboy!

i love android too!

leemajors
08-10-2010, 01:01 PM
http://gizmodo.com/5609353/first-widespread-android-trojan-loose-in-the-wild

lefty
08-10-2010, 01:15 PM
http://gizmodo.com/5609353/first-widespread-android-trojan-loose-in-the-wild
lol

Drachen
08-10-2010, 01:30 PM
lol

well that sucks, albeit inevitable. With the popularity of Apple, Android, et al, viruses are bound to be created. I guess now the last domino (android) has fallen and joined the others.

Cry Havoc
08-10-2010, 01:30 PM
http://gizmodo.com/5609353/first-widespread-android-trojan-loose-in-the-wild

Don't be an idiot with what you install on your phone, and you shouldn't have any problems.

It does take a few brain cells to operate Android.

leemajors
08-10-2010, 03:49 PM
Don't be an idiot with what you install on your phone, and you shouldn't have any problems.

It does take a few brain cells to operate Android.

well, duh. it was for informative purposes.

Cry Havoc
08-10-2010, 04:47 PM
well, duh. it was for informative purposes.

My response was more aimed at lefty. Apologies for quoting you directly.

lefty
08-10-2010, 09:30 PM
My response was more aimed at lefty. Apologies for quoting you directly.
And Santa is real