Android May Sell 400,000 Units in 4th Quarter

Posted on September 24, 2008

Geeks and app developers are excited about the launched of T-Mobile's Google Android powered phone. Information Week cites one analyst's forecasts for the new Android phone in the 4th quarter as 400,000 units.

Strategy Analytics has been doing some number crunching. According to its computations, Android will grab 4% of the market for smartphones in the United States during the fourth quarter of 2008. That amounts to some 400,000 units sold. What do you think, is that bullish or bearish?
"We forecast 10.5 million smartphones to be sold in the U.S.during Q4 2008," said Neil Mawston, director of wireless device strategies at Strategy Analytics. That's the total market for smartphones, including BlackBerrys, Treos, Windows Mobile devices, Symbian phones, and the iPhone. Despite the buzz building around Android, it has some stiff -- and more experienced -- competition already hunkered down in the trenches.

With the iPhone expected to sell 10 million units this year alone that isn't much of a dent the Android is making. However, if the buzz is good Android could make a bigger dent in 2009. There are some similiarites here to when Microsoft went after Sony's popular PlayStation gaming console by launching the Xbox. A lot of the success will depend on how much marketing Google is willing to do and how much of their money and resources they are willing to give up to make the Android a strong iPhone competitor.