Npd Archive

  • Apple brushes off NPD’s smartphone report, says it sees ‘no signs of the competition catching up anytime soon’

    Apple brushes off NPD’s smartphone report, says it sees ‘no signs of the competition catching up anytime soon’

    Posted on May 11, 2010 | No Comments
    Fresh off NPD's latest Mobile Phone Track report claiming that Android has leapfrogged the iPhone in US sales, Apple is commenting on the numbers -- and as you might expect, they're not exactly taking a congratulatory tone with Google. Speaking to AllThingsD's John Paczkowski, Cupertino had this to say:
    "This is a very limited report on 150,000 US consumers responding to an online survey and does not account for the more than 85 million iPhone and iPod touch customers worldwide. IDC figures show that iPhone has 16.1 percent of the smartphone market and growing, far outselling Android on a worldwide basis. We had a record quarter with iPhone sales growing by 131 percent and with our new iPhone OS 4.0 software coming this summer, we see no signs of the competition catching up anytime soon."
    The factual accuracy of Apple's words here can't really be disputed, but as Paczkowski notes, the context can: lumping the iPod touch into this equation isn't really fair, since NPD's report is about smartphones, not mobile operating systems (which would've let devices like non-phone Android MIDs into the picture). Besides, this is about the US market in the first quarter of 2010, not global sales, nor is it about Apple's development pipeline. In other words, Apple's not disputing NPD's report here -- rather, they're simply trying to change the subject, as any properly-trained PR department would. There's no question Android still has an uphill battle to dominate market (and mind) share the world over, but the odds that it outsold the iPhone in the US in Q1 remain very real.

    Apple brushes off NPD's smartphone report, says it sees 'no signs of the competition catching up anytime soon' originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 11 May 2010 14:42:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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  • NPD: Android ousts iPhone OS for second place in US smartphone market

    NPD: Android ousts iPhone OS for second place in US smartphone market

    Posted on May 10, 2010 | No Comments
    digg_url = 'http://digg.com/tech_news/Android_ousts_iPhone_OS_for_second_place_in_US';
    "We're number two" might not be the chant everyone's after, but we have a feeling that Google is more than satisfied with that in this case... for now. According to market research firm NPD, Google's Android operating system edged up into second place in the US smartphone market during the first quarter of the year, leaving it still well behind RIM's BlackBerry OS, but marking the first time that it has moved ahead of Apple's iPhone OS. Specifically, NPD found that RIM maintained a strong 36 percent market share for the quarter, with Android coming in at 28 percent, and iPhone OS in third at 21 percent. The growth for Android was attributed largely to strong carrier support -- like Verizon's buy-one-get-one free offer which, incidentally, also helped Verizon maintain a 30 percent smartphone market share, which is just slightly behind AT&T at 32 percent, and ahead of T-Mobile and Sprint at 17 and 15 percent, respectively.

    Disclaimer: NPD's Ross Rubin is a contributor to Engadget.

    Continue reading NPD: Android ousts iPhone OS for second place in US smartphone market

    NPD: Android ousts iPhone OS for second place in US smartphone market originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 10 May 2010 12:23:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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  • NPD: 75 percent of US iPhone, iPod touch users download content, other 25 percent think Opera Mini is a tiny concert

    NPD: 75 percent of US iPhone, iPod touch users download content, other 25 percent think Opera Mini is a tiny concert

    Posted on May 5, 2010 | No Comments
    While we can't honestly imagine an iDevice user going about their life without connecting to the iTunes App Store at least once in a blue moon -- if not on a semi-permanent basis -- the statistically-significant NPD Group decided to look into the matter regardless. Sure enough, the org reports that a full three-quarters of iPhone and iPod touch users in the US do indeed download apps and entertainment content from the internet. In case you're wondering, that figure beats the pants off those connecting from their video game consoles (19 percent) or Blu-ray players (17 percent), but both of those are obviously biased towards physical, disc-based media. Before you dismiss these findings as obvious, however, let's read between the lines -- if 75 percent of Apple's touchscreen devices are pulling content from the web, that means the other one-quarter have gone without. If not apps, what the heck are those devices being used for?

    NPD: 75 percent of US iPhone, iPod touch users download content, other 25 percent think Opera Mini is a tiny concert originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 05 May 2010 07:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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