Google’s Android gaining on RIM, Apple fast

Not long ago, the feud between iPhone and Blackberry captivated the smartphone world’s short attention span.
Research In Motion’s (RIM) Blackberry device has been almost ubiquitous among business users for years in the US now and iPhones have long catered to trendy consumers desiring an entertaining phone, rather than an enterprise necessity.
It would appear, however, that the tides are turning with the emergence of Google’s Android OS and the looming release of Microsoft’s much-anticipated Windows Phone 7.
According to a recent comScore report on mobile subscriber market shares, RIM and Apple both stumbled in the quarterly period between February and May 2010.
By the end of May, 49.1 million people owned smartphones, an impressive 8.1% increase from the three months prior.
RIM owns 41.7% of the smartphone market, Apple comes a distant second with 24.4%, Microsoft finished third at 13.2% with Google hot on its heels at 13%.
These are not the surprising numbers, though. Many expect RIM to continue its smartphone world domination as the Blackberry keeps its stranglehold on the professional world. Similarly, many expect iPhones to perform to the standards of their popularity even though the Comcast study doesn’t take into account the release of the iPhone 4.
What is remarkable, however, is that Google’s Android is managing to take a considerable chunk out of the market over very little time, something that may point to a very different phone future and a dramatic shift in smartphone sales.
Over the three-month period, Google’s market share increased by an astounding 4%, while every other manufacturer dropped points.

Much of Google’s success can be attributed to the Android platform, which is rapidly becoming one of the world’s more desirable mobile operating system.
In addition to Google’s 4% growth over these past three months, comScore’s previous report shows a 5.2% growth in market share between November 2009 and February 2010.
Microsoft drew the short straw in mobile platform market share losses, losing 1.9% between February and May. RIM dodged any serious damage with a loss of only 0.4%.
Apple’s decline has been small, losing just 1%, but factoring in Google’s growth illustrates a more concerning bridging of the gap.
This should not come as surprise, as many handset vendors – with the notable exception of Nokia, Apple and RIM – currently run on or plan to run on the Android OS, while the iPhone OS runs only on Apple products. That sort of exclusivity is creating problems for Apple, which will only continue to see its lead diminish to Google’s more accessible and free operating system.
RIM and Apple will attempt to maintain their share of the market, but at this point it’s merely a fight to not lose, rather than to win.
Even if RIM’s release of the Blackberry 6 OS helps the firm next quarter, in a preemptive strike on the yet to be released Windows Phone 7 from Microsoft, its lead is no longer secured.
In terms of the Jobs mob, as long as Apple continues to release a new iPhone or operating system update every six months or so, the folks in Cupertino may be able to sit, although quite uncomfortably, in second place for a while longer.
It’s too soon to knock RIM or Apple off their pedestal as kings of the smartphone space, but it may just happen – sooner rather than later.
Google’s success doesn’t seem to let up as it marches forward every quarter with astonishing growth. When Windows Phone 7 comes out later this year, it would be hard to imagine Microsoft not experiencing similar results.