Android Market pulls ahead of Apple’s iTunes AppStore
PLUS: Android handset share hits 40%. | Nokia falls in total phone sales chart.
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More iPhone apps (around 14 billion) have been downloaded than Android apps (7 billion). But just as Google Android-based cellphones are now outselling the iPhone, so the app war is titling in the relative newcomer’s favour.
A yet-to-be-published IDC global survey found Google’s Android Market has 1.3 billion apps downloaded during the third quarter versus 1.1 billion from Apple’s iTunes AppStore, according to IDC mobile platforms analyst Scott Ellison.
Looking ahead, IDC predicts proximity-based (that is, GPS-capable) social networking apps will be the hottest category in mobile software.
Android handset share hits 40%
Separately, a ComScore’s tracking survey of the US market has found that Android phones now have a smartphone subscriber share of 40%.
Apple’s iPhone continues to grow, if not at the same pace, while previous smartphone champs RIM/BlackBerry and Nokia continue to sag.
(Click to enlarge; Symbian is Nokia's main smartphone software platform)
Latest worldwide phone sales figures
Meanwhile IDC's latest quarterly tracking survey of all mobile phone sales (that is, beyond the smartphone market) shows Nokia remains top dog, but continues to decline.
Samsung gains at the expense of fellow Korean phone maker LG. Both are among the many companies now making handsets that run on Google's Android software.
And while Apple has a single model of phone, 20 million iPhones sold in the lastest quarter were enough to put it at number four in the phone market overall.
(Click to enlarge)
Chris Keall
Fri, 05 Aug 2011
Fri, 05 Aug 2011
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Android Market pulls ahead of Apple’s iTunes AppStore
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