# Android takes half of UK smartphone market, Blackberry rise, Apple fall to third



## editor (Oct 31, 2011)

Changing times: Android now powers half of all UK smartphones being sold, with RIM's BlackBerry in second place with 22.5% and Apple's iPhone in third place with 18.5% - a massive drop from its 33% share a year ago a year ago (I expect this to rise a bit with the 4S release).








> n just 18 months, Android has come from nowhere to become the mobile OS powering just under half of every smartphone sold in the UK – and the half the people owning a mobile phone in the UK have a smartphone.
> 
> In the process it has bested Nokia's Symbian (since declared dead, though still stumbling to its grave), RIM's BlackBerry OS (which is fighting back) and Apple's iPhone (which, given its comparatively high price until the latest cuts to the iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4, was never likely to dominate long-term).
> 
> It's an amazing run for Android which is likely to carry on into 2012, since it's taken four years to reach this point (longer if you count Nokia's, RIM's and Microsoft's offerings from 2005/6 as smartphones) but the number of smartphones being sold is accelerating.



http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/oct/31/android-uk-smartphone-growth

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/oct/31/half-uk-population-owns-smartphone


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## skyscraper101 (Oct 31, 2011)

Entirely symptomatic of the fact that Android is now easily as good as iOS, the Android market has come of age, and whether you're in the market for a high end Samsung Galaxy SII or an el cheapo Orange San Francisco, you don't have to compromise on the choice of OS.

Apple wouldhave to make a _really_ desireable phone for me to switch to iPhone now.


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## editor (Oct 31, 2011)

HTC are now - rather surprisingly - the biggest smartphone vendor in the States, with Samsung in second place and Apple shunted into third.
http://www.engadget.com/2011/10/31/canalys-htc-nips-apple-samsung-to-become-top-smartphone-vendor/


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## c01642 (Oct 31, 2011)

I expect windows phone to make a small jump with all the Nokia adverts we get bombarded with when we turn the TV on, unless everyone is sick to back teeth in a few weeks time.


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