Android Smartphones – the new market mover in Smartphone platform devices

Monday, July 23rd, 2012 Han Dong, Sr. Product Marketing Manager

By now, most followers (and fellow nerds) of the Smartphone market have seen the latest Nielsen Q2 2012 report, which identifies the rapid growth in Smartphones
(over “feature phones”) and the market share of various platform devices (including iOS, Android, Blackberry and other misc platforms).

In summary the key points that come out of this report are as follows:

• Among U.S. mobile users, 2 out of 3 Americans that bought a new mobile phone are choosing a Smartphone over a feature phone
• Of those new phone buyers, 54.6% are choosing Android versus 36.3% choosing iOS (i.e. Apple iPhone)
• RIM Blackberry buyers (in the last qtr) are represented by only 4% of new purchases

So what conclusions can we derive from these market findings?

• Clearly, as smartphones have become more commoditized and with carriers offering low cost or even free smartphones (for new subscriptions), there is now no cost advantage by buying a feature phone (vs a smartphone).  And with the current emphasis on data connectivity (versus unlimited voice/text plans), smartphones (with the plethora of available apps) are the device of choice to take advantage of wireless data connectivity wherever you go.
• Unfortunately for Blackberry, which was only until recently the de facto smartphone device for most mobile workers, is now a current as a Palm Pilot ten years ago (nerd joke).
• But what about the issue on Android vs iPhone (iOS) market share/growth?  I think this is an interesting phenomenon which will continue to fluctuate on a quarterly basis.

• Will the “new” iPhone (rumored to be out this fall) create a revived iPhone buying spike – potentially overshadowing Android’s rapid rise?
• Will the rapid pace of Samsung, HTC, Google (and perhaps Motorola) continue to push the envelope and introduce a constant stream of new and sexy devices?
• Lastly is the “race to have the most apps” becoming less of an issue – supposedly there is approximately a 10% difference in the number of apps available for iOS vs Android (per most recent app counts from 2012 Apple WWDC and Google I/O events)?  Volume of apps and cross-platform availability for the most popular (especially enterprise apps) ones is essentially parity between the two platforms (certainly true over the next 6-12 months).
• The true opportunity for differentiation will come from the devices themselves, the speed and performance (including network connectivity speed) at which they work, and the underlying OS usability.

So the message is clear, everyone is now buying smartphones (versus feature phones) – particularly based on Android and iOS. However, while the cost of a smartphone purchase may be reaching ‘zero’ (with a contract), the average individual’s cell phone bill has increased over 30% since 2009 (J.D. Power & Associates 2012). To no one’s surprise, users want to actually use all the cool features and they soon discover that they need connectivity for nearly everything on their smartphones.  And not just any kind of connectivity – users need and want fast connectivity with few limits.

As the leading provider with the world’s largest commercial Wi-Fi network, iPass revolutionizes the connectivity experience for smartphone and tablet users.  With complete solutions for Android and iOS users, iPass delivers a seamless and cost-effective (versus cellular data) Wi-Fi connectivity solution for smartphone users wherever they go.

For more information about iPass for smartphones, please check out our smartphones and tablets pages today.

Tags: Android, iOS, smartphone, tablet, wi-fi access