Android outpaced iPhone in terms of growth and downloads on the Myxer platform, according to the company’s new BoomBox report on entertainment trends.

Visits from Google’s Android users to Myxer’s mobile site grew 350 percent in 2009, compared to Apple’s iPhone, which grew 170 percent. Myxer delivered seven times more downloads to Android devices than to iPhones in the fourth quarter of 2009.

“Fundamentally, it is clear that when a consumer has a frictionless experience while leveraging the open mobile ecosystem, they are more apt to download significantly more content,” said Steve Spiro, vice president of marketing at Myxer, Deerfield Beach, FL. “Myxer offers over 2.5 million content items that are very easy to download to non-iPhone devices.”

Myxer is a consumer destination for mobile entertainment and personalization with catalogs of ringtones, wallpapers, videos, applications and games.

Android steps up
The HTC Dream/G1 that runs the Android operating system remained the leader throughout 2009. It garnered 35 percent of the unique users completing downloads on Android handsets in December.

The HTC myTouch was used by 18 percent of consumers, Motorola Cliq by 11 percent and Motorola Droid by 7 percent. Each gained significant traction by the end of the year.

While Google’s Android has stepped up, Research In Motion’s BlackBerry operating system still dominated the smartphone market on Myxer’s mobile site.

RIM grew from 51 percent in 2008 to 67 percent in 2009.

Microsoft’s 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.

RIM’s Blackberry Curve remains the No. 1 phone on Myxer’s mobile site for the second year in a row.

The BlackBerry Curve garnered close to 10 percent of visits in both 2008 and 2009.

Hip-Hop and R&B content dominated the music genre, accounting for 77 percent of Android downloads and 47 percent of iPhone downloads.

“We are amazed at how quickly the Android platform has gained traction in the mobile entertainment space,” Mr. Spiro said.

“Not only is the traffic to Myxer’s mobile site growing at a faster pace by users on the Android operating system, but the number of downloads per user is almost double that of the average user on the iPhone operating system,” he said.

Do not underestimate
Myxer believes that the Android operating system will continue to outpace iPhone in terms of mobile entertainment consumption from the Myxer platform.

Android is predicted to quickly open a new market for this open content economy.

Mr. Spiro said just because the iPhone gets a huge amount of attention, that does not mean Android and RIM should be counted out.
 
“While iPhone gets a huge share of the press and developer interest, RIM is a dominant operating system in the Myxer environment, which has served 30 million users and transacted 1 billion downloads,” Mr. Spiro said.

“Android is also growing very quickly, so marketing plans should take into account a larger number of operating systems when considering budgets, more than just iPhone and the mobile Web as a whole,” he said.