Android's Q1 2011 global sales hit 36 million, analyst reports

By Phil Nickinson
last updated

Another day, another chart showing Android's spectacular growth. What you see above is Gartner's numbers for the first quarter of 2011. And in those three months, some 36.2 million Android devices were sold worldwide, for a 36 percent share in the period. Second highest was Symbian, at 27.5 million, and iOS devices totaled 16.9 million devices. BlackBerry was at 13 million, and Microsoft (Windows Phone) a meager 3.6 million. HP's webOS was relegated to the "Other" category.

Compared to Gartner's Q1 2010 numbers, Android increased nearly 600 percent for total sales, and increased its global market share by 26 percentage points. Apple's iOS, on the other hand, doubled its unit sales but only increased its market share by 1.5 percentage points.

Overall, some 428 million mobile devices were sold in the first quarter of the year, up 19 percent from the same period a year ago.

Source: Gartner

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Phil Nickinson
Phil Nickinson
14 Comments
  • The numbers are looking good for Google.
  • WOW ! Pretty impressive jump for Android, :)
  • I'm no fan of Windows Mobile 7 Phone 7 Series Phone, but why would RIM sales be increasing while Windows is dropping? I didn't think Windows mobile 6x was all that popular. Win7 is a big improvement over version 6 and BB.
  • Windows Phone 7 sold 1.6 million phones in Q1, Android sold that many in THREE DAYS! Face it, no one likes Microsofts lame attempt at a smartphone OS. The only reason they have the percentage of the market they do is because of legacy Windows phones. Its not a surprise that they are dropping of the face of the charts with their half baked products.
  • I certainly don't dispute the trend, because these numbers generally agree with the number from several other sources. But do remember that this is Gartner, and your Gartner study can say anything you pay them to say. But this is also Q1 data, which is after the big push by Microsoft for Winmo7, and there still were not a lot of phones out there yet. The only person I ever met who had a Win7 phone returned it for Android. They are still not selling well. Also, don't be confused by the actual numbers of units sold. With more and more people ditching their feature phones there are more and more smartphone sales for all vendors. A rising tide lifts all boats. Its the percentages you want to watch, and Rim dropped from 19% to 12%.
  • It would seem anyone who wants an iPhone pretty much has one now and the sales are from upgrades.
  • That's might be part of it, but looking at the numbers, Apple doubled its units sold. (Remember these numbers are for more than just phones). There was high demand for the iPad and the iPhone 4 over the year between the quarters covered by this report. So Apple doubled it units sold, made small gains in Percent of market as well, but still ends up less than half of Android based on units or percentage. Apple is still growing. Both in units and market share.
    It can't all be from upgrades. Its just that Android is growing so much faster that it looks like Apple is standing still.
  • Units sold are probably from users switching from ATT to big V, since the iPhone can't transfer. I highly doubt the vast majority of these sales are new users. From appearances it looks as if RIM is being cannibalized from all sides, however Its Android that is claiming the most "meat".
    What is going to be interesting is in a years time once the market start settling and we figure out how big of a player Phone 7, and WebOS will be to see who starts cannibalizing who from the remaining players.
  • Except there hasn't been a big switch, no matter how much noise those unhappy with AT&T made. http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-18438_7-20035526-82.html AT&T reported its iPhone subscriber churn (customers with the device who left for a competitor) was unchanged from the same period last year.
  • Hahaha. Another win for Android OS. Suck it iOS. Lol
  • Would be also interesting to see 'active' phones rather than sales. A lot of the iPhone sales are upgrades of existing users where most Android sales are new users. I wonder how many total active phones there are for each platform?
  • Active phones would probably still show IOS ahead of Android. After all, they had 4 years head start. But by that measure, Rim and Symbian would still be king of the hill. Active units measures the past. Units sold gauges the future. Apple fans always trot out the number of people IOS "Reaches". This "Reaches" term is a code word for measuring the total number of units in the field (past years sales + current sales). It tells you where the market has been, not where its going.
  • C'mon HP,WebOS deserves ALOT better than being dumped under the "Others" category!
  • How about separate numbers for tablets and phones. Then we can see exactly what is happening. Put me in the giveaway.