Top 10 Mobile Phone Handsets – Android & Blackberry Devices Lead The Way Over iPhone In The UK
Written by Rob Nichols on February 25, 2011 · Filed under Tech
It may seem like every Tom, Dick and Harry is packing an iPhone 4 or one of the previous generations, however it may surprise you that the iPhone is not top of the smartphone dominance rankings here in the UK. Instead, it has dropped from 3rd to 6th, whilst 3 Android devices storm into the lead.
More specifically, the Android devices in question all come from the same manufacturer. More unsurprisingly, that manufacturer is HTC, with its original HTC Desire, and the Desire HD follow-up in first and second respectively, with the budget offering of the HTC Wildfire following up in bronze medal third place.
In fourth lies another unsurprising entrant, from RIM, the Blackberry Curve 8520. Obviously extremely popular amongst businessmen and women, and becoming increasingly common amongst fashion conscious teenagers, the study from comparison website USwitch, shows that Blackberry’s are still competing respectably in the smartphone market, despite the seemingly constant criticism.
Ernest Doku, technology expert at uSwitch.com, said: “The competition is taking a huge bite out of Apple’s market.”
According to Mr Doku, the iPhone suffers from the age old Apple ‘problem’ of the cost, which equates to £500 in some instances, while competing Android devices offer over 800,000 deals giving the handset away for free.
“A free handset is a much more attractive proposition than shelling out for one – especially at iPhone prices,” he said.
Here’s the top 10 list in full:
- HTC Desire (pictured)
- HTC Desire HD
- HTC Wildfire
- Blackberry Curve 8520
- Samsung Galaxy S
- Apple iPhone 4 (16Gb)
- Motorola DEFY
- Sony Ericsson S500i
- Samsung G800
- Samsung i600
The devices listed vary in price, as well as mobile OS, which is quite refreshing actually, as with all the hype constantly surrounding the top end smartphones hitting shelves, and the excitement that they cause, it is nice to know that devices such as the HTC Wildfire are capable of making up the numbers.
The successful uptake of Android over the iPhone is a testament to the successful development of Google’s open source mobile OS in the last couple of years, clearly there are a lot of people out there buying Android phones and recommending them to other people as shown by improving user review scores compared to the iPhone.
Obviously not everyone is capable, or indeed interested, in owning the latest and greatest smartphone, so I suppose it is unsurprising that devices such as the Wildfire, DEFY, and the offerings from Sony Ericsson and Samsung which make up places 8, 9 and 10 in the list, are raking in almost as many sales as the likes of the Desire and the iPhone, which will set you back a whole lot more cash. Although, you could also argue that an awful lot of people who want to buy an iPhone 4 may already have one, or are now holding out until the inevitable iPhone 5 is released in a few months time.
Quite sad, though, is the complete lack of Nokia devices. Of course it wasn’t that long ago that this list would have been entirely dominated by the Finns, but alas, no more. However, the new Nokia partnership with Microsoft and the adoption of Windows Phone 7, may mean that in a couple of years, both companies will have more presence in the market in which both are lacking so much at the moment.
This list may well be acceptable for Microsoft at the moment, who obviously dominate so much in other markets and have no shortage of income, but worrying indeed, for Nokia, as this is pretty much it for them, with very little third party interest in it’s software other than the odd implementation of Symbian on Sony Ericsson devices such as the Satio and Vivaz, the company’s future is somewhat in the balance, relying pretty much entirely now on Microsoft to provide a great mobile OS up there with the likes of Android, which has obviously been so successful.
So, what do you reckon to this top 10 mobile phone handset list, then? the facts, they cannot be disputed, but the reasons why would be interesting to hear. Is it only price? Or are there other reasons why the iPhone is slipping down the slope to do with people being smart and holding out for the next iPhone handset upgrade?
