Android phones Erode US market share

Sina Science and technology news Beijing time June 21 morning, market research company Needham & Co analyst Charlie Wolf (Charlie Wolf) on Monday, according to the Market Research institute IDC published data, A detailed analysis of global smartphone sales in the first quarter as of the year ended March.　　With Apple's iphone booming in the US market, the market share of Google's Android platform, which once held the top of smartphone sales, is being eroded by Apple, according to the results. As of March, Android accounted for 36.2% of the global smartphone market, but the user growth rate was only 3% per month, Wolff said in an analysis.　　Below the 7.5% per cent monthly growth rate for the fourth quarter ending last December, far below the 9.5% growth rate of the third quarter ending last September. According to Wolff's analysis, the slowdown in user growth was due to the fact that in the first quarter of this year, Android handsets ' share of smartphone market in the US market dropped from 52.4% to 49.5%.　　After that, the market share of Android phones has declined correspondingly globally. "We think it's just the beginning of a drop in the U.S. market for Android," Wolff wrote in the report, "as US mobile operators Verizon began supporting the iphone, and Apple launched the iphone 5 adapted to GSM and CDMA networks this fall, Android's market share will be hit further. At the same time, the iphone is also likely to log on to mobile operators Sprint and T's wireless network, which will undoubtedly add insult to Android.　　"According to Wolf's analysis, the market share of the iphone rose from 17.2% in the fourth quarter of last December to 29.5% in the first quarter of this year to March." Wolff believes Verizon's support for the iphone has certainly worsened Android's development environment, and he believes that with the launch of the iphone 5, Apple's smartphone series will become a strong competitor for Android: "On the one hand, Many Verizon Web users who want to switch to the iphone now are also subject to the purchase agreement, which would require a large penalty if they switch to the iphone. On the other hand, Verizon's iphone 4 has been in the market for 8 months, and it's been a very long time for smartphones. Apple's plans to launch a smartphone that supports both GSM and CDMA networks have been one of the reasons the company delayed the release of the iphone 5 until September. So we expect that with the launch of Apple's iphone 5 this fall, it will verAnother wave of Izon Internet users buying iphones. "This will mean," Wolff said, "that Android will be directly affected by the September iphone 5 listing in the fourth quarter of this year, and that the U.S. share of the market will likely fall even further." "Wolf believes that the focus for Apple and Google and other handset makers will be the prepaid market for mobile phones.　　Apple's COO Tim Cook has pointed out that Apple is seriously studying the Chinese market, because China is also a huge prepaid market.　　Wolff believes that with 38 companies, including Samsung and HTC, currently licensed to produce Android handsets, including Samsung and HTC, the future Asia-Pacific region may have a price war to compete with white-box handsets for the handset market. "The key to survival and development of second-tier brand handsets is price rather than function, so it could eventually lead to price competition between white box handsets and Android phones, and even some famous brands may join the price war," Wolff said. "(linjing)