While Apple may be regarded by many as the smartphone king, it turns out that they aren’t at the very top in terms of sales figures.
According to a new survey by the NPD Group, RIM ( Blackberry) is still at the top when it comes to smartphones. Apple may have sold 3.79 million iPhones in the first quarter of 2010, but RIM shifted an impressive 7.8 million BlackBerrys which keeps them firmly planted at the top spot in the U.S.
There’s more though, according to the survey, Android has outsold Apple for the first time in the U.S. .According to their data, Android-based phones accounted for 28% of smartphone sales while the iPhone accounted for 21%. Research In Motion (RIM) stayed at the top with 36% for the first 3 months of this year.
The reasons why Blackberry and Android are outselling the iPhone? Quite simple really, they are not tied down to AT&T.
As in the past, carrier distribution and promotion have played a crucial role in determining smartphone market share,In order to compete with the iPhone, Verizon Wireless has expanded its buy-one-get-one offer beyond RIM devices to now include all of their smartphones.”
said Ross Rubin, executive director of industry analysis for NPD.
Since the iPhone is currently sold only on AT&T in the US, they only have access to 32% of the market which AT&T owns. RIM and Android on the other hand are available to multiple carriers and have access to Verizon (30%), T-Mobile (17%) and Sprint (15%) who make up the bulk of the rest of the market.
The message is quite clear, but Apple seem to be refusing to accept the truth. While they are very successful at the moment, if they want to sustain long term growth they needed to broaden their horizons and open their eyes to the fact that they need to make the iPhone available on more carriers.
They’ve done it in Europe, In Ireland you can buy the iPhone on O2 and Vodafone, and in the UK you have an even larger choice and it’s growing all the time.
Otherwise Android is going to keep moving forward and stealing more and more of Apple’s market share.
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