Continued good news for Google’s ascendant Android operating system is bad news for Research In Motion, as the Canadian smartphone leader lost some market share for the first time in nearly three years, a study suggests.
NPD Group’s analysis of the second quarter of 2010 found that Android took the lead among operating systems in handsets sold in the U.S., with 33 percent of the market, compared with RIM’s 28 percent and the Apple iPhone’s 22 percent.
Hurt Apple, Pre-iPhone 4
The survey came just a day after a Nielsen Company survey found that the launch of the Android-based Motorola Droid on Verizon Wireless at the end of last year bumped Android use from four percent of the market in the fourth quarter of 2009 to nine percent in the first quarter and 13 percent in the second quarter. During the same period, RIM fell from 38 to 35 percent and Apple gained only slightly, from 27 to 28 percent, the company said.
Among people who bought phones in the past six months reached by the Nielsen survey, Android’s share shot up to 27 percent from 17 percent while RIM fell from 36 to 33 percent and Apple dropped from 27 to 23 percent.
Those figures are all before Apple pulled off the most successful smartphone launch ever with the iPhone 4 in June, which would explain why many Apple users might have been holding off buying a new device until then.
Still, Android’s momentum is unmistakable.
On A Roll
“Android is definitely on a roll, though it must be noted that comparing RIM to Google is only part of the story,” said consumer-devices analyst Avi Greengart of Current Analysis. He noted that Android devices are increasingly available on a wide range of devices and on multiple carriers.
“It is not too surprising that a popular OS used by…