HTC’s Android army appears to be dinging rivals such as Research in Motion’s BlackBerry lineup and Motorola, according to a Piper Jaffray analyst.
In a research note, Piper Jaffray analyst T. Michael Walkley said that HTC is taking share from rivals and bolstering the fortunes of both the Android operating system as well as Qualcomm’s Snapdragon processor. Walkley wrote:
Our April and early May checks indicated strong North America share gains for HTC with strong initial sales of the HTC Incredible at Verizon, combined with solid sales of the HTC Hero at Sprint and HTC HD2 and My Touch 3G at T-Mobile. We believe consumers overwhelmingly selected HTC based Android and Windows Mobile based devices due to its customizable UI, processing power with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 1 GHz processor and sleek designs.
So who’s taking the biggest hit? Walkley said that BlackBerry is likely losing share to HTC at AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile. “we believe the Bold 9700 continued to lose smartphone share at AT&T following a price increase last month to $199. Further, our checks indicated further share losses to Android products at T-Mobile and Verizon,” said Walkley.
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Although Walkley didn’t address HTC’s impact on Apple, he did note that iPhone sales are showing no signs of slowing down. Nevertheless, HTC with Android represents a threat to the iPhone. The two parties are duking it out with dueling patent lawsuits.
According to Walkley, Verizon’s sales folks are pushing Android products such as the HTC Incredible and Motorola Droid over the BlackBerry.
In addition, Motorola may be some collateral damage. Walkley said the HTC Incredible probably took share from Motorola at Verizon, but shortages likely kept the Droid as the top smartphone at the carrier for now.
