Tesco Mobile: Android has overtaken iPhone

Tesco has revealed that sales of Android handsets has overtaken Apple’s iPhone for the very first time ever, giving us an insight into the rapid growth of Google‘s OS.

The supermarket giant has exposed that over the festive season, the iPhone was outselling Android handsets two-to-one. However, in February the tables turned, and Android handsets began overtaking Apple‘s smartphone in terms of sales.

Tesco Mobile, which is a joint venture between Tesco and O2, said the increase in Android sales can be put down to the affordable cost and wide device range available to customers. The virtual operator is also  convinced that this is an indication of future trends, claiming that Google’s OS is likely to grow even larger in 2011, especially once the likes of the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play hits the shelves.

Graham Harris, chief executive officer of Tesco Telecoms and Tesco Mobile, commented: ”As one of the UK’s leading operators, these sales are a useful barometer for smartphone trends. There is a lot of choice in the market and as a result consumers are driving healthy competition between rival operating systems.”

In addition to Tesco Mobile’s own data, industry analyst firm Gartner has also shown that Android sales have grown globally by almost 900 percent, with Google’s rapidly-growing accounting for 22.7 percent of the market in 2010.

While it’s not surprising that Android sales have surpassed those of the iPhone, the launch of Apple’s next-gen smartphone, the iPhone 5, could shake things up come summer.

[Source: KnowYourMobile]