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Nielsen: iPhone 4S helps Apple close sales gap with Android
Market research firm Nielsen has posted its latest figures on smartphones sales within the U.S. and they show how Apple's new iPhone 4S has helped the company close the gap with devices that use Google's Android software. Specifically, in the last three months, about 45% of U.S. shoppers who bought a smartphone chose an iPhone, up significantly from 25% the previous quarter. Meanwhile, 47% of smartphone buyers went the Android route, down sequentially from a dominating 62%.
Apple's smartphone sales numbers had slipped in previous months as people were holding out for the iPhone 4S launch, which came a year and a half after its predecessor, while Samsung was seeing strong sales with its Galaxy S II handsets. Besides the new iPhone 4S, Apple also Apple also introduced an 8GB iPhone 4 for $100 and cut the 3GS to zero when purchased with a contract, further helping it pick up pace.
RIM's BlackBerry held the third spot during the fourth quarter of the year but the company continues to see a downward trend. According to Nielsen's estimates, its market share tumbled from 7.7% to 4.5% for new smartphone sales between October and December. The decline in sales is even more worrying considering the firm just released new Bold, Curve and Torch models a couple of months ago.
In terms of total market share for Q4 2011 -- as opposed to just recent smartphone acquirers -- Android holds 46.3% of the mobile OS market while iOS grabbed 30%. In third place is RIM's BlackBerry with 14.9%, followed by Windows Mobile at 4.6%, webOS and Symbian with 1.4% each, and Windows Phone 7 at 1.3%.
Related Products from Product Finder
Apple iPhone 4S
The iPhone 4S looks identical to last year's model but comes in a new 64GB flavor and upgrades the camera to include an 8-megapixel sensor with improved low-light performance and 1080p video capture. In terms of performance the new iPhone is reportedly up to 2x faster and is also capable of running on faster HSPA+ networks, reaching theoretical download speeds of up to 14.4Mbps.
Nokia Lumia 800
The Nokia Lumia 800 measures a fairly compact 116.8mm x 61.2mm x 12.1mm (4.6in x 2.4in x .5in), it features 16GB of internal storage, but lacks a microSD memory card slot. The Nokia Lumia 800 runs on a single-core processor (1.4GHz). The Lumia 800 is capable of HSPA 14.4 3G data connections on the 900, 1900, and 2100MHz bands and also features Wi-Fi and Bluetooth support.
Samsung Galaxy Nexus GT-I9250
The Galaxy Nexus by Samsung is the first device to run Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. It also gets a larger battery and a super high-resolution display. It features a subtly curved front glass panel that protects the 720p resolution (720 x 1280) Super AMOLED HD touchscreen display.
User Comments (11)
Post a comment|
Guest
on January 18, 2012 3:07 PM |
Looks like apple's making a comeback. Look out android. :P |
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hahahanoobs
on January 18, 2012 3:31 PM |
I wonder if any of those sales were replacements due to the brittle front and back glass breaking. I sold my iPhone 4 32GB, because I needed the money and replaced it with a SGS Fascinate and I LOVE it! Cyanogenmod 7.1 made me love it even more, because now its faster than an iPhone 4/S. Navigating iOS was so frustrating. Had to wait for iOS 5.0 just to be able to minimize the keyboard when text messaging, closing running apps takes too long, the home button started to take multiple presses to get it register after a while. And try moving the cursor to exactly where you want it. It's made me want to throw the thing on a number of occasions. The things I do like about the iPhone 4 is it's a good looking phone, battery life, and the retina display, but it's still too damn small at 3.5". WP7 and Android are way better if you actually want a phone that works how it should. YouTube: iPhone 4S vs SGS II Drop test |
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Guest
on January 18, 2012 3:35 PM |
Apple's products are not built to be thrown or dropped. lols |
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Guest
on January 18, 2012 4:02 PM |
Nothing to fear on Android's part. The iPhone has less than half the features of Android, even after copying a bunch. |
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Panda218
on January 18, 2012 5:56 PM |
Guest said: Apple's products are not built to be thrown or dropped. lols There inst a single device made to be thrown or dropped. They are designed to withstand damage when dropped accidentally. |
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LinkedKube
on January 18, 2012 6:01 PM |
Panda218 said: Guest said: Apple's products are not built to be thrown or dropped. lols There inst a single device made to be thrown or dropped. They are designed to withstand damage when dropped accidentally.
Neither are babies but it still happens. Going to go ahead and agree with both statements, apple products aren't built to be thrown or dropped but what is other than a toughbook and those things cost around 5-6 grand. |
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Scshadow
on January 18, 2012 6:23 PM |
I wonder what boosted the sales so much. It wasn't the hardware upgrade cause there basically wasn't one. Besides sheep don't care about hardware, You can only care about things you understand. I guess their speech recognition gimmick is selling. |
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KG363
on January 18, 2012 6:26 PM |
How does windows mobile have so much? It was dead before WP7 came out. |
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Steve
on January 18, 2012 8:19 PM |
Guest said: Apple's products are not built to be thrown or dropped. lols If my Galaxy i9000 was an iPhone I would have destroyed it over a year ago. Sh*t happens and if you carry around a small device like a phone all day every day it needs to be durable. |
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Burty117
on January 19, 2012 5:27 AM |
I'm confused as to why people view the iPhone as weak? My 3GS has been dropped more than any other phone i've owned in recent years and it only has a few scratches? I recently got the 4S and i've already dropped it a few times (on wood floor mind) and hasn't even made a scratch yet? I have never used cases as I hate them and whats the point in buying a great looking phone if its going to be wrapped in cheap plastic all day? My old Motorola's died after the first year of use and my Nokia's all scratched much easier than my iPhone's have. Although my Sony Ericsson's have taken one hell of a beating and still work to this day with only a few scratches! |
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Guest
on January 19, 2012 7:58 AM |
Yup my 4s is pretty strong...dropped mine a few times also. This is my first iPhone so I can't compare prior iOS's but I am amazed how everything just works like you think it should..Glad I went with a iPhone verses all the other crappy phones I've had in my life. |
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