Strategy Analytics announced this morning that they are expecting Android sales to account for 400,000 of the 10.5 million US smartphone sales they foresee going down in Q4 of 2008.
“Google has the brand power in the USA to make a big impact at launch. The main issue will be operator subsidies,” said Chris Ambrosia, Executive Director of Strategy Analytics, “As seen with the iPhone and smart devices in general, retail prices need to be well below $200 to be competitive. Longer-term success will, of course, rest on Android vendor ability to create designs with wow factor and an intuitive user-interface.”
Not quite sure what they mean by “well below $200”, especially when citing the iPhone as an example. The most pocket friendly iPhone is just a buck short of the 200 dollar pricepoint, and the latest chatter has most people expecting the same pricetag for the only Android-powered handset expected in ’08, the HTC Dream (G1).
Regardless of trivial semantics, the numbers sound about right. After all of the hype and intense blog coverage, HTC might push 400,000 units to the curious and oh-so-excited geek crowd alone.
[Via IntoMobile]