Apple may be touting the release of its iPhone OS 3.1.3 update this week, but new research shows the iPhone is actually starting to slip when it comes to smartphone market share.
The shift is no big surprise -- analysts have been expecting the iPhone to begin losing its stronghold to Android for some time now -- but this is one of the first concrete signs suggesting the trend may actually be upon us.
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Apple's iPhone fall
The new numbers come from ABI Research, an analytics firm based in New York. ABI measures sales of smartphones from quarter to quarter and works with manufacturers to ensure its data is in line with the companies' own estimates.
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According to ABI, Apple's iPhone accounted for 18.1 percent of global smartphone sales in the third quarter of 2009. In the fourth quarter, that number dropped to 16.6 percent.
The change itself isn't enormous, but what's noteworthy is that smartphone sales overall grew by 26 percent -- yet, even with that significant growth in the market, Apple's iPhone sales fell.
"We're getting to a point where the iPhone is starting to look a little tired, a little dated," ABI's Kevin Burden tells me.
This is Apple's first quarter-to-quarter drop in smartphone market share in two years, ABI's research indicates. The last time the iPhone suffered a loss was in late 2008.
