Blackberry… oh, how the mighty have fallen. After dominating the smartphone market for so long, Google and Apple seem poised to be the only two smartphone players left standing.
The latest comprehensive figures we have are through July of this year and the trend is clear:
| Top Smartphone Platforms Total U.S. Smartphone Subscribers Ages 13+ Source: comScore MobiLens | |||||
| Share (%) of Smartphone Subscribers | |||||
| Jul-10 | Apr-11 | Jul-11 | Point Change (July-10 to July-11) | ||
| Google Android | 17.0% | 36.4% | 41.8% | 24.8 | |
| Apple iPhone | 23.8% | 26.0% | 27.0% | 3.2 | |
| RIM Blackberry | 39.3% | 25.7% | 21.7% | -17.6 | |
| Microsoft | 11.8% | 6.7% | 5.7% | -6.1 | |
Google’s dominance continues, Apple continues to gain ground, all others are being left in the dust. We expect Apple’s numbers to continue to grow now that it is no longer teathered to AT&T’s service. Additionally, Apple’s 4s was released earlier this month to rave reviews (including our own – Total Networks’ internal smart phones are a mix of Android and iPhone).
While it is technically very easy to change from one technology to the other, the emotional attachment to specific smartphone technologies make it harder. This sentiment was summed up perfectly in a recent email from Total Networks client, Jonathan Frutkin to our President, Dave Kinsey. After confirming that we’d make Jonathan’s transition from his Blackberry to a new iPhone 4s a painless transition, Jonathan replied:
This is a giant, big deal for me. I had the Blackberry pager with email in the 90s. But as my friend, the Palm Pilot purist said to me today — let it go. It is over.
NOV
