Analyst: iPhone 4 still bestseller 'by far' at AT&T, Verizon
updated 12:25 pm EDT, Mon June 13, 2011Canaccord says iPhone still outsells Android in US
In spite of seeming pressure, the iPhone 4 is still the top-selling smartphone at AT&T and Verizon by a wide margin, Canaccord Genuity said in a new research note. Checks showed that the Apple phone was still "by far" the most popular in May and June, even after phones like the Samsung Infuse 4G and Sony Ericsson Xperia Play arrived on shelves. While sales of Motorola's Droid X2 were "steady," Motorla's Atrix 4G at AT&T and Xoom tablet at Verizon were both "disappointing," research lead T. Michael Walkley and other analysts said.
Some of the problems for Android related to overeager Android phone makers putting out HSPA+ and LTE devices before the chipsets were truly ready, Canaccord claimed. The HTC Thunderbolt and Samsung Droid Charge sold well at first at Verizon, but their first-generation 4G hardware led to "much higher" returns than usual after customers weren't happy with battery life. As such, they were actually protecting the iPhone 4, whose battery life wasn't an issue.
The iPhone 3GS was also keeping its place above Android at AT&T because of its price. Store clerks often treated the $49 model as the de facto entry level smartphone but saw it regularly outsell higher end Android devices. Android's leads were at Sprint and T-Mobile, where Apple doesn't yet sell iPhones.
Apple also had the definite lead in tablets. The iPad 2 had a wide lead at AT&T and Verizon where the BlackBerry PlayBook was "weak," and neither Motorola nor other tablet manufacturers had more than modest sales.
RIM may have once again suffered the most damage. The BlackBerry phone line saw "broad" losses in share at all four major US carriers and was out of the top three in each case. Western Europe was also slowing down, especially since powerhouse phones like the Samsung Galaxy S II were now in the region where they hadn't reached North America. Even Nokia was doing some damage, as the C series was along with Android hurting sales of the cheap BlackBerry Curve 8500 series in Asia-Pacific and Latin America.
Phones like the BlackBerry Bold 9900 weren't due to arrive until late in July or in August and would mostly attract upgrades in the corporate world, not regular smartphone buyers.
Read more: electronista.com |
