Apple Catching Up to Android: True or False?

Nielsen recently came out with a study that states that the iPhone 4S jumpstarted iPhone sales last quarter, finally boosting Apple’s market share. While Nielsen had formerly stated that only about 25% of smartphone consumers bought an iPhone in the third quarter, in the fourth quarter this percentage jumped to a whopping 44.5%, putting Apple directly behind Android sales, which clocked in at about 46.9% in the fourth quarter. Nielsen also reported that, of the iPhone buyers last quarter, 57% chose iPhone 4S.

Some speculate that Apple’s lag behind Android sales had to do with its limitation to AT&T, then its expansion to only Verizon. Now that the iPhone is available to AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint, at lower prices (the iPhone 4 is now only $99 while the 4S is about $199), market specialists predict that sales will continue to increase over time.

Although this Nielson report is good news for Apple, it doesn’t necessarily mean that the company is on its way to catching up to Android smartphones. The Nielson report focused on Apple and Android buying trends in the third and fourth quarter. It didn’t focus on how many Apple users and how many Android users there are. There are still way more Android users out there, and this likely won’t change for a while. The surge in sales for Apple likely occurred because of the release of the iPhone 4s. The iPhone 4s did relatively well when it was released, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that Apple is on its way to dominating the smartphone market.

As they did with the iPhone 4S, we predict that Apple will again come out with the iPhone 5 in fall 2012, again boosting Apple’s market share. As for its battle against Android, I guess we’ll have to wait to see who wins out in the end.

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About the Author: Erin is a guest blogger who frequently writes about mobile technology, market dominance, and using money saving Dell coupons.