iOS is gaining ground in recent years, Android still dominates the global market

According to research by StockApps, Apple’s iOS has gained traction over the past four years, gobbling up a good chunk of Android’s global operating system market share. However, Google’s operating system still dominates the market.

In 2018, Android had a market share of 77.32%, while this year it is estimated that around 69.74% of all devices in the world are running Android. This is a drop of almost 8% in four years. By contrast, iOS went from 19.4% to 25.49% in the same period.

There could be many reasons for this, but the most obvious one is that Apple has significantly expanded its range of smartphones and tablets. The company has released four flagship iPhones in the last two years instead of two and has updated its iPhone SE family. Offering customers more choice and lower prices surely has its effect.

However, Apple will fight to dethrone Android for one simple reason: the open source nature of Android. Only Apple devices are sold with iOS, while Android can be implemented on various devices, not just smartphones and tablets. Also, despite Apple’s efforts to expand its portfolio of iOS devices, Android still has variety on its side, with smartphones ranging from $100 to $1,000 and beyond.

Then there’s Android’s dominance in markets where iPhones are much more expensive than their rivals. South America and Africa are just two examples, as the former market only has 10% iOS adoption. By contrast, in North America, Apple has more than half of the market share.

The fountain

Share this:

• Click to share on Twitter (Opens in a new window)
• Click to share on Facebook (Opens in a new window)
• Plus

• Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in a new window)
• Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in a new window)