Android trying to catch up to iPhone

12th January, 2010 by Adina
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A recent ChangeWave study reveals that smartphone buyers prefer Android phones as much as they prefer iPhones. The November launch of the Motorola Droid has lead to an increased demand in the United States for Android devices, from six percent in September to 21 percent in December, i.e. 15 percent in 90 days. The need for Android handsets is now significantly closer to that of iPhones, which is 28 percent. Android is now ahead of the BlackBerry with 18 percent and this happens for the first time. Other platforms have a steady decline in demand. Windows Mobile has lost about a third of its demand, being now at six percent, while Palm’s webOS has not succeeded to stop de decline, the demand being now three percent, i.e. half of that from the beginning of the three-month interval.

As a hardware manufacturer, Motorola has jumped from one percent to 13 percent, registering the first increase during over three years of studies and is now above Palm, with four percent, and HTC, with nine percent. As an individual phone maker, Apple is still in lead with a clear 32 percent of customers preferring an iPhone, while HTC’s BlackBerry comes second with 21 percent.

The aggressive campaign for the Droid and some favourable reviews helped Android to get an increased demand in the past months. However, 72 percent of the Android phone owners claimed to be very satisfied with their handsets, while 77 percent of the iPhone owners claim the same thing. BlackBerry comes third with 41 percent, while Palm owners and those of the Windows Mobile platform are ranked below them, with 33 percent and 25 percent, respectively.

This success of the Droid is a potential danger to the iPhone, but there is also good news, as the drop in demand for the iPhone 3GS is much softer than it was after the release of the iPhone 3G, which proves that Apple is relatively secure for the moment. For BlackBerry and Palm, the increase in demand is likely to be related to the shipping of new phones in the early part of the year, such as in the case of the BlackBerry Tour2 or the Pre Plus.


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