The Android operating outsold the iPhone in the US for the first time in Q, according to research firm NPD.
It said Android-based phones took second position in the market with 28% of shipments, ahead of Apple on 21% and behind market leader RIM with 36%.
Ross Rubin, executive director of industry analysis for NPD, attributed the spike in part to new promotions by market leader Verizon Wireless.
“In order to compete with the iPhone, Verizon Wireless has expanded its buy-one-get-one offer beyond RIM devices to now include all of their smartphones,” he said.
However, the figures do not yet show up in industry metrics at rival ComScore, which gave Android a 10% market share in its last report.
This could be due to the different methodologies, said WSJ blog All Things Digital. ComScore counts current mobile device ownership, while NPD is quarterly, based on online consumer surveys and doesn’t include corporate sales.
Andrew Lipsman, senior director of industry analysis at comScore, toldWSJ that the two metrics were not necessarily exclusive. “[I]t’s entirely reasonable for Android to be outpacing iPhone in the most recent sales period while iPhone would still have a substantially larger share of the current mobile device market.”