Galaxy Quest: Samsung Now King of the Androids

John Paczkowski — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 20:17:41 +0000

Motorola’s Droid is no longer the doer it once was when it first debuted–in market share terms, anyway. The company has ceded its Android crown to Samsung, which now ranks as first in the United States among Android manufacturers. The company was responsible for 32.1 percent of all Android smartphones sold in the States in the third quarter, according to Gartner, a massive 300 percent increase over the fourth quarter of 2009, when it sold only 9.2 percent of them.

The engine for that spike in sales? Samsung’s Galaxy S phones, which the company distributes through six U.S. carriers, among them AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile. Samsung says it has now shipped three million Galaxy S smartphones since the line’s mid-July launch.

And how did other Android vendors fare in Gartner’s rankings? Motorola placed second, HTC came in a close third and LG a very distant fourth.

U.S. RANKINGS: ANDROID

Samsung

Motorola

HTC

LG

Seems Motorola’s alliance with Verizon is finally beginning to cost it a bit of market share.

“Motorola, by launching its key Android devices on Verizon Wireless, was able to gain significant market share in the U.S. but is now in a difficult position as their Android business is too reliant on Verizon Wireless with roughly 40-50% of their worldwide Android sales coming from Verizon,” Gartner analyst Hugues De La Vergne told me. “With a rumored iPhone coming to Verizon in Q1, Motorola is the hardware vendor that has the most to lose.”

Sprint CEO to Pre Buyers: Get Your Sleeping Bags Ready

John Paczkowski — Wed, 20 May 2009 11:00:23 +0000

One of the simplest ways to create a shortage, and the buying frenzy that typically accompanies it, is to announce that there will be one. And this is precisely what Sprint CEO Dan Hesse did for the Palm Pre Tuesday. Speaking at J.P. Morgan’s Global Technology, Media and Telecom Conference shortly after Sprint announced the handset’s street date, Hesse said he anticipates that supplies will be limited, at least initially. “We don’t intend to advertise it heavily early on because we think we are going to have shortages for a while,” Hesse said. “We won’t be able to keep up with demand for the device in the early period of time.”

Interesting thing to say in advance of a product launch on which so much is riding, don’t you think? Unless you’re already trying to foster the perception of excess demand. As Gartner analyst Hugues De La Vergne noted last month, “It’s important to have a success like selling out. The Pre has to live up to the hype or else they’ll lose their momentum to rival products coming out soon after.” And clearly, that’s a very real danger here. Though, to be fair, there are other possible explanations. It could simply be responsible production scheduling. It might also be that Palm’s financial situation has forced the company to temper its launch run-rate in order to retain adequate capital for marketing and customer service. Or it could be that Pre really is the blockbuster device Palm (PALM) and Sprint (S) believe it to be and no amount of supply will be enough to meet the initial and overwhelming demand for it. It could be that the Pre is the next Apple (AAPL) iPhone.

“What the iPhone has shown is that if you really do have a compelling device that is revolutionary then customers will switch to your service,” said Hesse. “We think the Palm Pre stacks up very well against the iPhone.”

We’ll find out come June 6.

AllThingsD » Hugues de la Vergne

Galaxy Quest: Samsung Now King of the Androids

Sprint CEO to Pre Buyers: Get Your Sleeping Bags Ready