Android is used on 49.3 per cent of smartphones sold in the US market in the first quarter, compared to 43.7 per cent for Apple’s iOS. What this means is that Android has thus boosted its lead from a year ago, when was ahead of Apple by a margin of 47.9 to 44.6 per cent. But the US is supposed to be Apple’s home ground after all according to surveys half of Americans believe that Judaism did not come before Christianity and 37 per cent believe Sarah Palin is qualified to lead the US. If Apple can’t sell in such a well informed country it really is in trouble.
In other nations Android is cleaning Apple’s clock. It is on 93.5 per cent of smartphones in Spain, 73.6 per cent in Germany, 69.4 per cent in China, and 63.3 per cent in France. The only civilised country where Apple was in the lead was Japan where it still has a 49.2 per cent market share to 45.8 per cent for Android. It is fair to say that really no one can work out the Japanese market.
What the survey shows is that even Microsoft is making inroads against Apple. Microsoft’s Windows Phone sales are still low but are growing and mostly at Jobs’ Mob’s expense. In the United States, Windows boosted its share to 5.6 percent from 3.7 per cent a year ago, Kantar said. Windows grabbed 10.9 per cent of smartphone sales in Italy, 7.2 per cent in France and 7.0 per cent in Britain. Windows’ strength appears to be the ability to attract first time smartphone buyers, upgrading from a feature phone, which was exactly the role that Apple had last year.