Q1 mobile numbers: Android is up, Microsoft takes a dive

Gartner has finished collecting data on mobile phone sales and market share for the first quarter of 2011, and while no one expected Android to slow down, few people expected the platform to pick up as much steam as it has.
Android devices now make up over 36 percent of the mobile phone market worldwide, with 36.27 million devices shipping in Q1 alone. The only other company to enjoy significant growth was Apple. The iPhone moved up to 16.8 percent of all mobile phones worldwide, nearly double its market share from a year ago.
The rest of the numbers look bad for their respective companies. Sales of Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 flagged, topping only 1.6 million devices of the total 3.66 million mobile phones that run a Microsoft operating system. That 3.66 million is a big number, but it actually represents a sharp decline from a year ago, from 6.8 percent of overall global mobile share to 3.6 percent.

Most analysts point to a lack of manufacturer interest in Windows Phone 7 as the root of Microsoft’s dropping market share in the mobile space: developers are interested in the platform, and many customers are too, but the handset manufacturers simply haven’t lined up.

This may be one reason why Murtazin calculated that only 674,000 Windows Phones had been sold, adding fuel to the rumor mill that Microsoft may want to pick up a mobile manufacturer of its own, like Nokia. Microsoft already has a partnership with Nokia to start producing Windows Phones, but that partnership likely won’t bear fruit until 2012 at the earliest. Neither company has officially said when their first Windows Phones will reach the market.
Research in Motion (RIM,) makers of the BlackBerry, also took a heavy tumble, largely due to Android’s rise. RIM fell behind Android, Symbian, and iOS as the fourth major mobile OS worldwide. To put the drop in perspective, it was number two a year ago, second only to Symbian. Speaking of Symbian, Nokia’s now discarded mobile OS completely choked in the past year, shedding close to half its market share and tumbling from the top spot. It’s still second globally, but the trend doesn’t look good.
What’s certain, however, is that the global market for mobile phones is looking more and more like the US market, when just over a year ago the two were almost incomparable. Android and iOS have enjoyed major gains both in the United States and abroad over the past year, and the old guard – Symbian, BlackBerry, and Windows Mobile, have all suffered because of it.