Android overtakes BlackBerry, becomes top US smartphone platform
Everyone knows that Android, once the little upstart aquired by Google, is now growing exponentially. Today, numbers released by comScore confirm that Android's growth has in fact been stellar. After passing Apple in the smartphone realm earlier this year, Android has now passed BlackBerry to become the most popular smartphone platform in the US.
These numbers only account for smartphone users, not those with feature phones, so this doesn't mean that the majority of all phones are Android devices. It just means that of all smartphone platforms, Android is now the biggest. This is still no small feat and remains at least a sentimental milestone for Android.
Even so, Android has by no means won the smartphone wars. Both Android and iOS have been gaining market share at the expense of others like RIM and Nokia, and both show no intention of slowing down. Not only that, but Apple still has desirability and mindshare, and RIM still has plenty of time and money to try to catch up. Nevertheless, Android will at least get some publicity and perhaps more developer interest thanks to this growth.
And although both iOS and Android are growing, Android is growing at a much faster rate. Between October of last year and this January, Android gained 7.7% of the market while iOS only gained a tenth of a percent. If Android continues this growth path, it will soon outstrip all its competitors, but as of now its lead is only slight, and it will be interesting to see what happens as the year goes on.
[comScore]
