From: John Navas on
Sales of Android-based smartphones are surging, tearing chunks of market
share out of Apple, RIM, and Windows Mobile's hides.

According to a report released Monday by the analysts at The Nielsen
Company, although RIM and Apple still hold their number one and two
positions as the top two suppliers of smartphones in the US, Android
phones are catching up � fast.

According to Nielsen's figures, among new subscribers in the past six
months, those picking up Android phones inched past iPhone buyers in the
second quarter of this year, garnering a 27 per cent market share to the
iPhone's 23 per cent.

In addition, a separate report by the market watchers at Canalys pegs
Android-phone growth at a whopping 886 per cent from the second quarter
of 2009 to the same quarter this year.

Both info-nuggets, however, carry hefty caveats. The iPhone 4 shipped on
June 24, right before the quarter ended. Its 1.7 million first-weekend
sales are presumably included among the Nielsen numbers, but sales of
the Jobsian handheld � antennagate or no antennagate � have been strong
during the ensuing weeks. A true iPhone v. Android analysis must wait
until the iPhone 4 has a full quarter in the sun.

MORE:
<http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/08/02/neilsen_smartphone_stats/>