Apple on NPD’s Android Outselling iPhone Claim: Whatever
So NPD says smartphones running Google’s (GOOG) Android are outselling Apple’s iPhone in the United States.
What does Apple think about NPD’s claim?
Not much. Apple (AAPL) spokeswoman Natalie Harrison tells me the company isn’t at all worried by the suggestion that Android sales in the U.S. might have leapfrogged those of the iPhone–particularly after IDC’s report last week showing Apple as the third largest maker of converged devices in the world.
“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,” Harrison said of IDC’s report.
“IDC figures show that iPhone has 16.1 percent of the smartphone market and growing, far outselling Android on a worldwide basis,” she added. “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.”
Interesting points, though lumping sales of the iPod touch with those of the iPhone seems a bit of a stretch, even though the two devices do run the same operating system. The touch might run a smartphone OS, but it’s no smartphone.
And Ross Rubin, executive director of industry analysis for consumer technology at NPD, tells me the company’s survey measured only smartphones. In other words, it excluded not only the iPod touch, but non-smartphone Android devices like the Archos 5 as well.