Apple Responds to NPD iPhone Marketshare Claims

Market research firm NPD reported that the market share for Google’s Android platform is greater than the iPhone’s, and now Apple is claiming those figures are misleading. In a response to the Wall Street Journal, Apple called the NPD data “limited.”

“This is a very limited report on 150,000 U.S. consumers responding to an online survey and does not account for the more than 85 million iPhone and iPod touch customers world-wide,” commented Apple spokeswoman Natalie Harrison. “We had a record quarter with iPhone sales growing by 131 percent, and with our new iPhone OS 4 software coming this summer, we see no signs of the competition catching up anytime soon.”

The NPD report claims that RIM holds 36 percent of the U.S. smartphone market, Google’s Android has 28 percent, and Apple’s iPhone OS is in third place with 21 percent of the market.

Ms. Harrison also pointed to an IDC report showing the iPhone has 16.1 percent of the global smartphone market, making Apple the third largest smartphone maker world wide. She added “Those figures put the iPhone well ahead of Android handset makers HTC and Motorola.”