CHART OF THE DAY: Apple's iPhone Market Share Actually Falling Faster If You Include The iPod Touch (AAPL, GOOG)
Dan Frommer, provided by
Monday, April 4, 2011
sfgate.com
Google Android has come out of nowhere in the last couple of years to kick Apple's butt in smartphone market share.
One common rebuttal among Apple fans has always been something like, "yeah, well, add the iPod touch to Apple's iPhone numbers, and you'll see a different story."
It's true. Adding the iPod touch does make Apple's iOS shipments and market share bigger than if you ignore it, and it narrows the gap with Android.
But it made a much better argument a year ago.
In fact, because the smartphone market, Google Android, and even the iPhone are all growing much faster than Apple's iPod touch business, adding the iPod touch to Apple's iPhone stats actually makes iOS's market share smaller than it was a year ago.
Specifically, while the smartphone market nearly doubled year-over-year in Q4 to about 101 million units, according to Canalys, the iPod touch only grew 27% year-over-year to about 10 million units.
Yes, the iPod touch makes Apple's iOS relatively bigger, and is important for the iOS app platform, especially for gaming. But it doesn't help the market share growth argument versus Android, because everything else is growing much faster than the iPod touch. (See data table below.)
This chart shows Android's market share soaring from Q4 2009 to Q4 2010, whether the iPod touch is included or not. Apple's market share is significantly higher when the iPod touch is included, and the gap with Android is smaller. But the iPod touch actually hurts Apple's market share growth year-over-year.
 |
