Reuters (via MacRumors) is reporting that Kantar Worldpanel ComTech, a research firm, found that Apple barely squeaked past Android in U.S. smartphone shipments in Q4 of 2011. It was very close, with the iPhone taking 44.9% of the market, and Android taking 44.8% of the market. They also claim that Apple is now growing faster than Android in all nine of the countries that they survey.
Just at their last earnings conference call, Apple announced that they shipped 37 million iPhones in Q4. Android on the other hand, slipped from their 50% marketshare in the year-ago quarter.
It’s also worth remembering that Apple builds the iPhone hardware and software, and thus, greater profit for a single company. Surveys like these also leave out the iPod Touch when counting iOS. That said, this report specifically mentions iPhones and not just iOS. If iOS vs. Android, were being measured, iOS would win out hands down considering it runs on the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad.
The report is just measuring hardware marketshare, and Apple takes in all the money for the device simply because they make the device from the top down. With Android, that’s not the case. Google releases Android into the wild, and different handset manufacturers create the hardware. In other words, Apple holds 44.9% of the market, and brings in all the money for it. Android handset makers have to split their share of the 44.8% of the market they hold.
Apple is the single best performing company in the smartphone market. Period.
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TAGS: android, iPhone, shipment
