Mobile

How The iPhone Could End Up In Second Place

4:24AM March 30, 2010 | John Herrman

Here are the US mobile web traffic figures for iPhone OS and Android, getting ready to collide: Android, on its way up; iPhone, on its way down. So when will Android overtake the iPhone? Try next month.

AdMob’s Mobile Metrics Report sees a predictable continuation of what we’d seen before from the ad tracking firm – specifically, that Android is on a serious tear, thanks in no small part to the massive success of the Droid. But before, the iPhone seemed unassailable. Now, it’s about to get trumped by Google’s OS, on terms it defined. (In the US, that is. The rest of the world’s still warming to Android, I guess.)

Modern smartphones are as much browsing devices as they are phones, so while mobile traffic isn’t the best way to measure total sales for a device, it’s a solid way to measure a device’s success, both in terms of how many people are using it, and how it’s getting used. The iPhone is a browsing device. So is the Pre. So are all the Android phones. But Windows Phones? BlackBerrys? Symbian devices? As popular as some of these are, they’re obviously not being used as smartphones.

The other key piece here, and one that’s not obvious from looking at the chart, is total browsing: It’s up. Way up; 193% up, in just one year. So when I talk about the iPhone falling to second place, I’m not declaring a loser – just a platform that’s winning more slowly. [Ars Technica]

Comments

  • Steve

    March 30, 2010 at 11:56 AM

    but what if like most people I use wifi for my iphone, or are these stats taken from the browser being used?

    • johnny

      March 31, 2010 at 12:37 PM

      no, coz no one would waste his iphone like that :)

  • tim

    March 30, 2010 at 4:47 PM

    android would have more worlwide share if all the phones were actually released worldwide. Trying to get a new android phone in Aus is a nightmare.

    • Angus

      March 31, 2010 at 4:34 PM

      Yeah, I’ll be looking for a new phone when my contract comes up in a couple of months. At the moment it looks like I’ll be going iPhone by default. Android is interesting but it’s just not up and running yet. Oh well, I’ll go iPhone this time and then check back on Android in 2 years when the contract is up again.

  • Breno

    March 31, 2010 at 5:31 PM

    The middle portion of the first graph looks suspiciously like a map of Singapore.

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