The iPad 2 Launch Event seemed to have put some of the android fans a bit on the back foot when it comes to the tablet market. But there is still nothing stopping them in the Smartphone front. Recent reports from Europe (two independent ones) indicate that Android is selling and shipping more Smartphone units than Apple iPhone.
This comes after Tesco in UK confirmed that it had sold more Android units for the last couple of months than Apple iPhone. Tesco is obviously happy about the healthy competition between Google Android and Apple and hopes it sees further improvement in numbers of both. On the other hand IDC’s latest Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker for Europe notes a massive 1,580 percent sales increase for Android mobiles in Europe between Q4 2009 and Q4 2010.
This is what IDC research manager Francisco Jeronimo had to say:
“The last quarter of 2010 clearly shows the trends for the coming years in Western Europe. The Western European mobile phone market will be dominated by smartphones, and Android will be the king of the hill, Android surged from 4% to 31% market share in less than a year to become the market leader in 4Q10 and the fastest growing operating system ever.”Android shipped 7.9 million units in Europe in Q4 of 2010 compared to the 5.2 million by Apple. Of course, you can always say that no single Android model sold more than the iPhone 4 and most of them probably are not in the same price range. But Android is doing just fine for now and maybe these numbers will further prod Apple into making a cheaper iPhone at some point in the future… Just maybe!
