Android Downloads Explode, Apple Continues High Growth, BlackBerry Leads

Visits to Myxer’s mobile site from users on the Android operating system grew 350 percent in 2009, compared to iPhone, which grew 170 percent, Myxer says.. In total, Myxer delivered seven times more downloads to Android devices than iPhone devices in the fourth quarter of 2009.

Keep in mind that Android starts from zero share, so extremely-high rates of growth are not unexpected. The bigger news would have been Android downloads failing to gain traction.

The analysis was made on Myxer’s 30 million members and their behavior relating to mobile entertainment downloads.

In part, Android growth is driven by the increasing number of Android devices now available, as well as a huge marketing push by Verizon Wireless to support its Droid introduction.

In December 2008 only one handset, the HTC Dream/G1, was operating on Google’s open source Android operating system. By December 2009, Myxer had seen nine different handsets running the Android OS.

• The HTC Dream/G1 remained the leader throughout 2009 garnering 35 percent of the unique users completing downloads on Android handsets. That makes sense, as the Verizon Droid launch did not happen until December 2009. It would be shocking if the Droid did not appear at the top of lists by the end of 2010.

“While we’ve seen the Android OS emerge as a serious competitor in the operating system landscape, RIM’s operating system still dominates the smartphone market on Myxer’s mobile site, growing from 51 percent in 2008 to 67 percent in 2009,” saysMyk Willis, Myxer CEO.

According to research conducted in the fourth quarter of 2009, Android users download seven times as many ringtones, wallpapers, videos, applications, and games as iPhone users.

Still, Apple iPhone downloads also grew 170 percent.

On the other hand, it is worth noting that RIM’s Blackberry Curve remains the number one phone on Myxer’s mobile site for the second year in a row, garnering close to 10 percent of visits in both 2008 and 2009. The Blackberry Curve is just one of the 1,500 different handsets that Myxer delivered content to in 2009.

Windows Mobile and Palm both lost ground in 2009, combining to relinquish 24 percent of the smartphone traffic on Myxer’s mobile site and giving ground to the Android, iPhone, and RIM.