About 200,000 smartphones based on Google’s Android operating system are sold every day, chief executive Eric Schmidt said on Wednesday, underscoring the strong challenge to rivals, such as Apple’s iPhone.
Schmidt told reporters on the sidelines of an industry conference in Lake Tahoe that Android — a mobile software launched just over a year ago — was gaining momentum in a fiercely competitive tech arena.
Android is now on smartphones made by a number of different manufacturers, including a revitalized Motorola’s Droid — the best-selling Android handset in the second quarter among US consumers — and Taiwan’s HTC (宏達電).
Google said recently that 160,000 Android phones had been activated each day during the second quarter, up from 65,000 in the first quarter.
Smartphones running the fledgling software topped the list among US consumers in the second quarter, industry tracker NPD said on Wednesday.
Android phones continued an “upward climb” in the US market, accounting for 33 percent of all smartphones purchased from the start of April through the end of June, according to the market tracking firm.
BlackBerry devices made by Canada-based Research In Motion (RIM) were second with 28 percent, while 22 percent of smartphone purchases were iPhones from Apple.
“While the Google-developed [operating system] took market share from RIM, Apple’s saw a small gain this quarter on the strength of the iPhone 4 launch,” NPD executive director of analysis Ross Rubin said.
The most popular Android phone was the Motorola Droid, followed by the HTC Droid Incredible and the HTC Evo 4G.
RIM hopes it will have a hit on its hands with a freshly-unveiled Torch smartphone running on its new BlackBerry 6 software.
“Blackberry 6 will soon offer features that have been popular in recently launched Android handsets, such as support for capacitive touch-screens and a WebKit-based browser,” Rubin said. “However, the Blackberry Torch lacks the large screen allure that has characterized the best selling Android devices at its price point.”
The NPD report supports figures released this week by Nielsen showing Android smartphones are gaining ground in the US.
“While the iPhone has been the headline grabber over the last few years in the smartphone market, Google’s Android [operating system] has shown the most significant expansion in market share among current subscribers,” Nielsen said in a release.
BlackBerry handsets continued to rule with 35 percent of the market, while iPhones were second with 28 percent at the end of June, according to the results. Android smartphones had grown to 13 percent of the market.
Smartphones capable of data connections such as e-mail and Internet browsing made up 25 percent of the US market at the end of June and Nielsen predicted they would surpass the number of feature phones by the end of next year.
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