It would be interesting to put estimated usage (MB) beside these numbers. My guess is that we would see an even more disproportionate growth in bandwidth per device. If programming attention is focused on the challengers, it's only a matter of time before the playing field begins to level.

I also think there's an oppotunity for the US pre-paid market and Android. More on thesundaybrief.com

Android revolution has started. Is growing fast ! There's no way to stop Android Robots now. Android will be the future OS and Iphone get a market niche like Macs vs PC's.

"Can Android sales catch up to the iPhone?"

Honestly, the question is not when, but how quickly.

When does Nokia become irrelevant?
When does Microsoft throw in the towel?
When will it be the Year of Linux?
When will Apple sell more phones than RIM?
Will Android fragmentation hurt or help?

"but Android is catching up fast with 9.6 percent (up 8 points)"

android isnt "catching up." it simply grew a little, it will never reach the level of the iphone… (i do not like the iphone so dont even suggest im a fan)

So when they say "symbian", is that all variations of the OS including the versions found on 'dumb phones' and feature phones?

r u simply not capable of analysis?

Why?

The pie grew 50% and most grew with it. Android really shot up with a 806% increase in units, iPhone not bad with 117% and RIM at 40%. It makes sense MS stayed flat as they are in a transition to Phone 7.

At this rate, Android will surpass iPhone next year. Add in new TVs running Android and it will be a great time to be a developer!

Now that Android is on the big carriers and they are marketing it heavily we will see even sharper growth for Android over 2010.

Guess its still too early to judge that now, cause smartphone penetration in emerging markets is still very low, but this wasn't a bit of surprise for me seeing the state of this niche.
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Would be interesting to see what specific Symbian models are included in there. Is it all of the S60s? or are they selected one by one? For example, the Samsung Jet runs S60 and I don't think could be defined as smartphone…

Many restrictions from apple on web and apps (develop apps just allowing some languages codes). One (I)phone versus Many android phones (to diferent needs)…

Seems you are those people that doesn't have a clue about what happens outside USA.
Symbian has more features than Iphone and Android. Feature/dumb phones from Nokia uses S40 and S30 that are not counted.
Just one example is China, they have about 700 million subscribers (more than 2X the population of USA), and Symbian rule the smartphone market in that country, where Android is also growing fast.
Iphone has relevant sales only at countries that operators can cheat poor and dumb customers with fidelity plans, like in USA that most of the people really thinks it costs 199, but in the end the total cost of ownership is something more than U$3,000!!!

Android has the momentum already. The key now is that Google can keep improving the user experience (still not on par with iPhone for what I read) and most importantly avoiding market fragmentation. In other words, if they keep improving the OS while keeping all versions compatible, they'll surely beat Apple.

and more fragmentation with less slick experience

The major Issue: Android is being used by many companies. Each company representing Android based on their adopted version of Android. However, Apple is a single entity who maintains and develop IPhone OS. Single entity can develop in better way since there is only one management who makes the decision about the feature development. On the other hand, Android just followed the way Linux grew. Android can be the best Mobile OS platform, if Google, Motorola and HTC collectively take some initiative to improve Android UI, Touch sensor, Android App Market, and many other areas.

Android will be for mass while iPhone is for class!
iPhones will be the Fun&Fast Ferraris while Android-Systems will be the standard-not-so-spectacular system!
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OS X market share: 6.15%

Future of iPhone OS market share: 6.15%

Apple customer: retarded with money

Symbian FTW. Owning the market #openfreedom style. Yet it does not deserve some links in the CrunchBase info box …

Samsung Jet may not be a smartphone. But Samsung Jet is not running Symbian/S60 either. For a list of Symbian phones seehttp://www.symbian.org/devices and when in doubt read phone's technical specifications.

Symbian is only used in smartphones. There used to be 3 flavours of it, S60, UIQ and MOAP but in the last 2 years or so the platform is unified, open source and free and it is simply called Symbian. In 1Q 2010 the only selling phones are Symbian/S60, touch (S60 5.0) and non-touch (S60 3.2). They are largely coming from Nokia but also Samsung and Sony Ericsson which have some very good S60 5.0 based devices.

Contrary to rather popular belief, Nokia's Series 40 and Series 30 feature phones (not S40 and not S30) are not related to Symbian at all. Here you can find the list of Symbian smartphones:http://www.symbian.org/devices

Android will over take iPhone before mid 2011.

It's obvious that Apple can't compete on numbers with Android.

But it can compete and will continue to lead in polished user experience.

The difference is similar to OS X vs Win 7. Win 7 is full of clutter whereas OS X is more refined.
Similarly, Android will continue to include a lot of features that aren't needed by the majority of 'mainstream' users and get in the way of device manufacturers – and users – integrating them in their usage.

Choice and competition are great, and Android puts the heat on Apple to keep improving iPhone OS and iPhones hardware.

But I prefer Apple's privacy ethos compared to Google tracking all my surfing habits in Android and who knows what else after they got forced by that German court to admitt they 'accidentally' were scanning for and logging wifi mac addresses while 'just taking photos' with Street View vehicles.

Don't trust Google.

Apple is the lesser evil. They make their money the honest way – making good products and charging for it.

Google spams the market with lesser quality 'me too' products – given away for 'free' – but stealing your privacy, identity, and compromising your security by letting any app into their store.

Apple will always just have a number 2 or smaller market, but they will always offer comparable services and products built with better quality, push the market forward with pioneering innovation, and not at the sacrifice of users privacy, identity, and security.

Be an android if you like, but I prefer to think different(ly).

Thanks for the clarification. The point still stands, though. How come a phone like the 5320 (not even qwerty) can be considered a smartphone, for example?
Guess you could add Android to ultracheap/non touch/non qwerty/very slow/very low spec phones, sell them like crazy and claim top smartphone selling honours?
Something doesn't seem fair….

And you forgot to mention that Apple/iPhone will keep being far more profitable than Android at least in the foreseable future.

And this is why it's still up for grabs. While Apple is closed and is doing their very best to make everyone hate them and switch to Android, the fact of the matter is that because you're only allowed to use the iPhone OS on an Apple iPhone, it makes it MUCH easier to develop for (if you ignore the native Objective C/C(++) requirements) and results in a superior UI. Google and the Android developers have to take into account that they're developing for a wide variety of phones that will only expand in the future and I think it's taking its toll.

I actually saw a working version of Windows Mobile 7, and the phone looks great. In terms of power, it's a beast in comparison to the iPhone/Android duo and it looks like they want to take the Blackberry/Palm market. Their UI is very similar to the new UI that is the iPhone/Android approach, but with a bit more of a traditional smart phone feel to it. I like it.

Definition of a smartphone from Wikipedia: "A smartphone is a mobile phone that offers more advanced computing ability and connectivity than a basic 'feature phone'. While some feature phones are able to run simple applications based on generic platforms such as Java ME or BREW, a smartphone allows the user to install and run much more advanced applications based on a specific platform. Smartphones run complete operating system software providing a platform for application developers."

This means my 5 year old Nokia N70 (which is awful compared to current smartphones) is still a smartphone even though it isn't even qwerty. I think it still has almost all of the features that the current touch smartphones have though… the UI and processing power is just a lot poorer. I mostly use my phone as a phone, read RSS feeds, use tethering and read my email. Occasionally I use Google Maps for navigation. I tend to avoid web browsing since the resolution makes it awful, although Opera Mini helps a bit.

This is exactly what I'd use a current smartphone for, it'd just be a whole lot better experience. So it's not about fairness, a smartphone definition is about the features, not about the UI.

"Apple sold 4.9 million more iPhones in the first quarter than the year before, while Android sales were up by 4.6 million units."

It seems to me that the numbers in the table and the numbers I've quoted doesn't seem to match.

iPhone sales:
Q1 2009: 3848.1k
Q1 2010: 8,359.7k

Wouldn't the increase in iPhone sales year-on-year be 4.5 million and not 4.9 million?

this is based on US only. Because RIM still dominates the sales of smartphone in Asia. Anyway, once the froyo unleashes to the market, this will all change.

It is indeed a matter of defining the category. One can argue that iPhone's initial release was not much of a "smart"phone either. No copy/paste, no multi-tasking, feature-phone-like hardware features …. Is a phone running only Java apps a "smart"phone? When it comes to Nokia's Series 40, no. When it comes to Android – yes. Is qwerty even part of the definition for a smartphone? Is the presence/absence of a stylus relevant? Is a smartphone still a smartphone if its owner doesn't know that he/she has a smartphone and doesn't use it as such? ;)

Exactly. The category definition is key here. I think "smartphone" might be outdated or misused. Surely when Steve Jobs sees these numbers, he's not really that worried about Symbian having 40% of the market, as probably half of those phones are owned by people who would never even consider buying an iPhone (or an HTC Desire or a Blackberry). Bet he's more worried about Android phones, which are really the ones eating his cake…
In other words, is the information we're seeing here relevant at all? For whom?

A smartphone is a smartphone, and a smart phone user is a smartphone user. You are right, those having a Symbian phone would never consider an iPhone. Or who knows, in time, if Apple significantly improves their product…

The info is relevant of course, for many reasons. Mainly for putting things in perspective. Apple is not as relevant on the market as you may think if reading the US media. It is also relevant for developers, they can see which application platform gives them access to a bigger market. Not to mention the openness and freedom the Symbian platform offers. Speaking of [good] developers, if there are any around they should check outhttp://callingallinnovators.com/ there's easy money to be made.

Want to make a great app, with access to any feature you can think of, on a gorgeous hardware and an OS with full multitasking support? Write an app forhttp://www.nokia.com/n8

Now that Android is on the big carriers and they are marketing it heavily we will see even sharper growth for Android over 2010.

I here dream to replace on iPhone 5 download 3Gs, nokia in the past….

The people! Explain me a difference between simple Where can i purchase an iphone, 3g, 4g I think now to order in American what at present is better?