The iPhone may be iconic, but when it comes to worldwide domination, it’s still Android that reigns supreme. According to a new report from Strategy Analytics, Android represented 87.5 percent of global smartphone market share in the third quarter of 2016, crushing Apple’s iOS in the race to become the primary power in the mobile space. In fact, iOS usage seemed to decline over the last three months — that follows Apple’s own latest earnings results, which showed yet another quarter of declining iPhone sales.
As per the newest research, almost nine out of every 10 smartphones around the globe run Google’s operating system, with 328.6 million Android devices shipped in the most recent quarter. That’s is a 10.3 percent year-over-year increase for Android, whereas Apple posted a 5.2 percent drop-off in its own phone shipments (45.5 million). Of course, Apple is the only other major player in the OS space (others include Blackberry, Microsoft, and Samsung’s Tizen, who claim a combined 0.3 percent market share). Even so, Apple seems to be weakening, with iOS making up 12.1 percent of the market in the third quarter, a 1.5 percent decrease from last year.
It’s still too soon to say whether Android will remain as powerful as it is today. As experts point out, much of Android’s popularity has stemmed from its ubiquity in lower-cost markets like China and India. Woody Oh, director at Strategy Analytics, noted, “Android’s leadership of the global smartphone market looks unassailable at the moment. Its low-cost services and user-friendly software remain attractive to hardware makers, operators and consumers worldwide.”
However, Oh went on to say that, “Several challenges remain for Google. The Android platform is getting overcrowded with hundreds of manufacturers, few Android device vendors make profits, and Google’s new Pixel range is attacking its own hardware partners that made Android popular in the first place.”
So stay tuned, friends. There may be still more power shifts when it comes to the global operating system game.
