An interesting post by Ingrid Lunden on Techcrunch suggests that phones build on the Android platform continue to sell at a fierce pace in global markets, but have slowed in the US.   Of the 7 markets (England, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, US and Australia) surveyed by Kantar in the study, Spain had the greatest surge of Android phone sales, with 72% of the all smartphone sales.  Whereas in the US Android accounted for 47.6% a decline of 6.6% over the same 12 week period last year in 2011.   What does this mean?  To me it suggests that Apple is still pretty darn popular in the US.  Furthermore, it suggests that first time smartphone users may opt for Android devices simply because they are cheaper.  It raises the question that has been batted around in the media for some time…. whether Apple will suffer (if or when) carrier subsidies go away. For now it is too soon to take an either or mentality, it is still the smart bet to build apps for both platforms.