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BBC MUNDO RADIO
SMART PHONES
Benny Evangelista, Chronicle Staff Writer
San Francisco Chronicle October 5, 2010 04:00 AM Copyright San Francisco Chronicle. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Eric Risberg / AP
The Droid Incredible phone is made by HTC.
In the battle for the smart-phone market, an army of little green robots has risen.
Momentum has shifted toward smart phones that run on Google's Android operating system, which have outsold both Apple's iPhone and Research In Motion's BlackBerrys among recent buyers, according to Nielsen Co.
The research firm said Android phones, which are made by various manufacturers using Google's mobile operating system, captured 32 percent of smart-phone sales in August.
Meanwhile, the iPhone and BlackBerry had to settle for a statistical dead heat for second at about 25 percent, Nielsen said. And that's even with one full month of availability for Apple's highly publicized iPhone 4.
The tide has clearly turned since January, when new Android phones captured only 14 percent of the market and trailed sales of BlackBerrys (34 percent) and iPhones (32 percent) by a wide margin.
As recently as June, RIM had 35 percent of new phone sales. But in August, Nielsen said that Android handsets had outsold iPhones among new U.S. smart-phone buyers in the second quarter.
BlackBerry still holds the overall lead with 31 percent of the market in August, with the iPhone second at 28 percent. But Android devices are now used by 19 percent of smart-phone owners, up from just 8 percent in January.
Android - whose signature is the little green robot logo - has gained in popularity because the software is free to any company that wants to use it in their phones, and a wide range of manufacturers have adopted it, including Motorola Inc. and HTC Corp. Verizon Wireless, the largest U.S. wireless operator, has promoted Android devices, and AT&T Inc., the exclusive U.S. carrier for the iPhone, also offers several Android models.
"Distribution and choice is king," said Roger Entner, Nielsen's head of telecom research. "They expand their distribution to Verizon, Sprint and AT&T and introduce a whole slew of devices, and their market share goes up like a rocket."
AT&T said Tuesday that it will start selling three new Motorola Android phones, ranging in price from $80 to $130 with a two-year contract.
Shares of Google, based in Mountain View, climbed $15.88, or 3 percent, to close at $538.23. Google has dropped 13 percent this year, while RIM is down 26 percent and Apple is up 37 percent.
Bloomberg News contributed to this report. E-mail Benny Evangelista at bevangelista@sfchronicle.com.
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