Android #1, Beating Blackberry and Apple

At this rate, RIM is going to be battling Microsoft for the bottom of chart very soon.

Looks like it's finally happened... Android has grabbed the #1 slot in market share for the USA. They managed to pass up iOS in November, and now that RIM is helping out by losing big chunks of market share for Blackberry, Android is in first place.

I'd expect Apple to do well in the next report, given the introduction of the iPhone to Verizon. Apple's choices for new product intros this year will be very important; will they announce just a spiffier iPhone, or also one that's designed to hit a lower price point? There's no doubt Apple will do well with a more powerful iPhone, but if they want to catch up to Android they're going to have to address the lower end of the market.

Apple has done that before, though. The initial iPod was very expensive, and it took years before Apple covered a full range of price points. In the process, though, they kept their profits and their market share high. Can they pull that off again?

Meanwhile, Android will continue to have many new devices introduced this year. Which is a problem, as it means the hardware base will continue to fragment, making things tougher for developers. No one really wants to test their games on a dozen or two dozen or three dozen handsets.... but that's where we're headed in the Android market. Unless you keep the system requirements at a fairly low level, which means your game won't be looking as good as an iOS game. It's a tough set of decisions.

It does show how far Windows Phone 7 will have to climb, though. Nokia better get some phones out soon, and one hell of a lot of them.