When visiting the U.K. and looking to see what phones the locals use, odds are that every other one has Google or Android device in hand. Research from Kantar Worldpanel ComTech by way of the Mobile Business Briefing indicates that Android phones command a 49.9 percent market share in the U.K., up from 29 percent a year ago. Much of the Android share comes at the expense of a competitor you might expect to be hurting too badly: Apple’s iPhone.
There are a few reasons I can think of that explain the numbers, and I expect a bit of a reversal in the next six months or so. First, even though the iPhone 4 was a popular model for more than a year, other Android phones arrived to the market before the traditional yearly iPhone refresh. I suspect some in the U.K. decided not to wait for the iPhone 4S and instead purchased a new Samsung or HTC device. Indeed, these two handset makers accounted for 83 percent of all Android sales in the U.K. in the three-month period ending Oct. 2.
