iPhone, Android Gain Share at Others’ Expense

Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android were the only smartphones to gain market share in the fourth quarter of 2009, a sobering fact that’s not lost on market leader Research In Motion and a handful of other manufacturers. Enterprise Mobile Today goes inside the latest comScore numbers and what they mean for the future of this key sector going forward.

Apple and Google may be on a seeming collision course, but when it comes to the mobile market they are the two big winners. The losers? Most everyone else.

comScore found that over a three-month period from September to December 2009, those two gained market share while Research in Motion, Palm and Microsoft all lost ground. Considering it was a short period, only one quarter, and that mobile phone customers are locked into hardware for two years, even the smallest of changes is a noteworthy shift.

Google’s (NASDAQ: GOOG) Android more than doubled its market share, from 2.5 percent of the smartphone market in September to 5.2 percent by December. As a growing participant such a ramp is not too surprising but it is still a good showing for a new player in a market full of established veterans.

Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) was the only other gainer, rising to 25.3 percent from 24.1 percent three months earlier. It remains in second place behind RIM, which is still a dominant 41.6 percent of the smartphone market. RIM was down one percentage point from 42.6 percent in September.

Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) also dipped one percentage point, from 19 percent to 18 percent. The big loser is Palm, down from 8.3 percent to 6.1 percent in just three months, and that’s with the highly-regarded Pre and newer Pixi phones available

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