Google Android Starts To Hurt Apple iPhone Share

The rise of the Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) Android mobile operating system has happened so quickly that it has humiliated Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), which has pushed it OS for years with little success.. Android has also begun to threaten the market share of mobile software from Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) and RIM (NASDAQ:RIMM) as well.

According to a survey from ChangeWave in which 4,068 consumers were polled between December 9 and December 14, 21% of people who plan to buy a smartphone in the next 90 days will buy one which runs the Android OS. The number is up from 6% in the September survey.

The biggest beneficiary of the trend toward Android is Motorola (NYSE:MOT) Droid. People who plan to buy that smartphone in the next 90 days rose from 1% of the market to 13%.

Apple’s OSX which powers the iPhone is still the market leader in operating systems. Twenty-eight percent of smartphone buyers expect to buy an iPhone, but that is down from 32% in the September poll, a clear sign that Google is doing damage to Apple’s momentum.

Microsoft’s market share continues to erode. Only 6% of people planning to buy a smartphone in the next 90 days plan to buy one using Windows, down from 9% in September.

Almost 13% of respondents say that they plan to buy a smartphone in the next 90 days, the second highest number ChangeWave has ever reported

ChangeWave says that RIM’s Blackberry remains the current smartphone leader with 39% of the market, followed  by Apple with 31%. Neither figure has changed much from September, but going forward both Apple and RIM face a surge of buying interest in Android-powered handset.

Douglas A. McIntyre