Dark Horse Android now neck-and-neck with iPHONE

Android sells 100,000 smartphones per day, what does that mean?

from Communities Dominate Brands by Tomi T Ahonen

So right after I finished my Q1 total smartphone market review, Google came out with the statement that they now sell 100,000 smartphones per day. There are 61 models of Android handsets by 21 branded manufacturers (including Google itself with its Nexus One as one Android handset model).

RUN RATES

What does this tell us? Well, the quick math of course says Google is now (in May) selling smartphones at the rate of 36 million units per year. Is that big? World number 4 manufacturer of smartphones, HTC (who makes mostly Android smartphones but also makes Windows Mobile smartphones) sells currently at the rate of 18 million per year. So where HTC once was manufacturing seven out of every ten Android handsets in the world, today HTC's share is at best half of all Android phones - this bodes well for the other big Android manufacturers like Motorola, LG, SonyEricsson, Samsung etc. HTC is no longer the only game in town.

But yes, what does 100,000 per day mean? How does that compare to Apple's iPhone? Yes, the world got quite a shock two weeks ago when NPD reported that Android devices were selling more than iPhones in the USA in Q1. So yes, how is Apple doing? Well, its latest sales numbers from Q1 had Apple selling iPhones at 8.75 million per quarter which means they sell at the rate of 35 million units per year. Yes, assuming Apple's current iPhone sales have not exploded in unit sales (reasonable assumption as we await the new iPhone model due in June, and something Apple said in court documents about the Gizmodo 'stolen' iPhone case, Apple actually testified that current iPhone model sales are struggling because customers now await the new model), the family of Google Android smartphones has definitely passed iPhone unit sales globally in Q2.

So in this quarter, Q2, Android is running neck-to-neck with Apple and passing it, by Q3, Android is challenging RIM and may well pass it (meaning it will be very close for the full year sales, who ends up selling more for full year 2010, who is the second best-selling smartphone platform in the world).

What of number one? In Q1, Nokia was selling at the rate of 86 million smartphones per year (over twice the size of Android today). If measured on a daily sales rate, Nokia sells 236,000 smartphones every day. Nokia grew 3% from the previous quarter. So Nokia is not 'threatened' by the Android invasion yet, not at all. But even the boys in Espoo do take notice when a rival grows over 50% in just one quarter. It can become an unstoppable force if that continues.