parislemon

Neck & Neck

The cynics will say these NDP U.S. smartphone sales numbers show little beyond a surge when the iPhone 4S was released. But a few key points:

1) Look at the back data: iOS is closer to Android than it has been at any point in the past year-plus. Where was the huge surge last year for the iPhone 4?

To me, this is all about Verizon. Now that Apple has the largest U.S. carrier (and Sprint, the third largest) on board to sell the iPhone, it’s a more level playing field.

2) But it’s still not a completely level playing field because T-Mobile isn’t on board (and with the breakup of the AT&T/T-Mobile deal, that probably won’t happen until Q4 next year at the earliest).

More notably, things will never be level as there are hundreds of Android devices for sale in the U.S. There is one iPhone (3 models with a few different configurations). Look at the chart again. 1 phone nearly outsold hundreds of phones. Big launch or not, that’s amazing.

3) Speaking of the different models. The top 3 smartphones overall in terms of sales? iPhone 4S, iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS. Coming in 4th, we finally have one Android phone: the Galaxy S 4G. Did I mention the iPhone 3GS is two years old?

4) It’s not like Android didn’t have a big new launch of its own. We’ll see what the December numbers are like next month, but I somehow doubt the Galaxy Nexus contributed to a surge in the same way that the iPhone 4S did. The bigger question: did it outsell any of the iPhone models?

5) This all speaks very well for Apple’s upcoming quarterly results.