You can’t doubt the market share the Android platform has been able to capture in such a relatively short time. Much of that success can be attributed to the availability of many differing handset models across different carriers. Practically every mobile carrier has some flavor of Android. Unlike the iPhone which (in the US) is pretty much locked down to one carrier – AT&T.
The iPhone has been a pretty big success on AT&T’s network despite the grumblings of performance in certain areas. Opening day sales of the iPhone 4 was estimated at 1.5 million. Not too shaby for only being available through AT&T in the US. Just imagine if the iPhone 4 was also released through T-Mobile or Sprint? We can only imagine how much market share Apple would have had.
Recently Verizon CTO Tony Melone was quoted saying “Android really took off when Verizon got involved”. Those are some strong words but you can’t deny the marketing dollars big red has put behind the green robot. Even though Verizon doesn’t have largest lineup of Android devices they’ve pretty much put the other platforms they offer in the back burner. Why not? Android is the fresh new kid in town with enough savy to compete with Apple and RIM and not locked down to one carrier.
We’ve posted the rumors and images of the fabled CDMA iPhone. The news on the interwebz is we’ll see this come to fruition on Verizon early 2011. That is pretty much a game changer in the mobile space. It nearly changes the balance of power giving availability of a device not currently in place. One opinion is a number of Android users would rather be holding an iPhone but for one reason or another won’t switch to AT&T. If Verizon put at least a portion of the marketing push they’ve invested into Android towards iPhone I think we can expect big numbers for the fruit device. Perhaps any gained fruit market share be at the expense of Android?
I’m all for variety but you can’t help but wonder once the Apple device is available on other carriers how many droves will flock to big red or whoever will be offering it. Can’t wait to see what happens in the next leg of the smartphone wars within the upcoming months.
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