Gartner: Android OS Sales Trumps iOS And RIM, Grew 888 Percent In 2010

Here's to hoping we can go at least one of those posts without the brand loyalists coming out of the woodwork to "interpret" these numbers to their satisfaction...<p>How about we just agree that there is <i>very</i> stiff competition in the smartphone market and when that happens everyone wins.

I was listening to the Economist today and they pointed out an interesting fact ...<p>Apple has 51% of the profits in the smartphone market even though it only has 4% of the market share (remarkable because Nokia once had that same profit percentage but at 40% market share) ... that to me is a far more interesting statistic than these sales numbers which the media seems to be fixated on.<p>We've seen this script before ... it was the Windows OS vs Apple products ... the Android OS will eventually outstrip Apple ... of that I have no doubt ... what is interesting to me is how much profits that continue to accrue to smartphone phone makers because of their decision to use Android. So far it doesn't seem to be helping as much as I thought it would<p>PS: Link to the stat I talked about <a href="http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2010/10/30/iphone-4-of-market-50-of-profit/" rel="nofollow">http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2010/10/30/iphone-4-of-market-50...</a>

Any idea why iPads and iPod Touches are not included as mobile devices? The report states that smartphones are a subset of mobile devices, but only uses Apple's iPhone numbers when counting mobile devices. Using the term 'iOS devices' makes me think iPad and iPod Touch should be included.