Rogers launched the first Canadian Android devices back in 2009 with the HTC Dream and the HTC Magic, they called this the “Android Revolution”. Every carrier these days has at least one device that’s powered by Google’s Android OS, but many of them have at least 50% of their selection. Take TELUS for example, 12 of their 24 current smartphones are powered by Android. Rogers currently has 14 smartphones and Bell has nine. This isn’t taking into account the sub-brands and new entrants, nor the Android-powered tablets.
Perhaps Rogers was a bit premature by stating the Android Revolution occurred in 2009, because it actually feels like it happened this year. Gartner Research has pegged the Android OS to capture about 40% of the global OS market share by the end of this year. There are no specific Canadian numbers so the closest we have is a 3rd party June 2011 report from comScore. They believe that the Android OS increased its Canadian market share by 7% in the last 6-months to 19%. RIM’s BlackBerry is still the leader with 38% market share, and Apple owns 31% market share.
There’s an interesting quote by Wade Oosterman, President of Bell Mobility, in Marketing Mag that stated Android is their fastest-growing platform, and specifically in July it exceeded BlackBerry to become their biggest OS – which is probably caused by the release of the Samsung Galaxy S II and that BlackBerry didn’t release a new product until August.
“Canadian numbers aren’t available, but service providers agree the product is a sales juggernaut. Android is Bell Mobility’s fastest- growing platform, becoming its biggest smartphone operating system overall in July, eclipsing Blackberry. “By Q4, the busy holiday season for wireless, we expect Android to account for the largest volume of new activations,” says Wade Oosterman, president Bell Mobility and residential services.”
It makes sense that Android is their fastest growing platform. Microsoft’s Windows Phone hasn’t seen a new device this year, BlackBerry has only released 4 new handsets and the new iPhone 4S was just launched. New Android devices are released at various price points about a couple times a month.
This coming Q4 will see even more Android handsets get released in Canada. Over the next few weeks the HTC Amaze and Holiday, Motorola RAZR, Samsung Galaxy Nexus, Galaxy S II LTE, Galaxy S II X, Galaxy Tab 8.9 LTE, Sony Ericsson ray, LG Optimus Net and the LG Optimus LTE Eye… exciting times for the little green robot.
