Android Sales Surge Past iPhone Sales In The 2nd Quarter

The Apple iPhone may get most of the attention, but new figures out from Nielsen show that phones running Google’s Android Operating System are winning where it counts: sales.

According to figures from Nielsen, sales of Android handsets surged to 27% of all smartphones sold in the second quarter of 2010, ahead of Apple on 23%, but behind Blackberry on 33%.

As per the chart above, Android’s share of sales continues to surge as Blackberry sales continue to slide.

Overall usage figures still favor the Blackberry and iPhone however, with Android handsets coming in at 4th place at 13%, behind even Windows phones at 15%. Blackberry and iPhone hold 35% and 28% of all smartphones in use respectively.

The surging interest in Android phones, along with the ongoing release of new handsets can only continue to bide well for the platform, combined with unprecedented negative publicity for the new iPhone 4. Notably though the sales figures for the iPhone 4 are only partially considered in the second quarter, with the phone being release June 24 in the United States; we’d suggest that iPhone sales will see a strong increase in the third quarter due to the new version, but this will do little to slow the growth in Android handsets.

(Img: Nielsen Company)