Android Dominates Nearly 80% of Smartphone Market, iOS Drops to 13% Share

[CountryBobs]

Android vs. IOS discussions are like a cow's digestive system. No matter how often you chew, it'll turn into sh*** one way or another.

That's cute, but doesn't add anything to the discussion. I've had iPhones since about three months after they were introduced. I desperately needed a new phone, and the iphone was a rumor I couldn't help but wait for. When it came out, it was everything and more. So much so that every other phone has copied it.

Androids are fine phones, but they are still nothing more than copies. They have some things they do better, but from what I've experienced, many stupid things they do far worse.

I only want my phone to work. I only want it to be simple. I've had friends trying to do something on their android that would have been easy on my iphone, but they couldn't figure it out. I would say can you do x, y or z, or do you know how to do something. They wouldn't know how, so I would try. Nothing about the system was as intuitive as on the iphone. I figured it out, but it was always a process. Plus, phone A was different from phone B. It was more difficult than it needed to be.

I have to say I was impressed with the overall look of the operating system, but there was nothing about the Androids that made me think this was better in any way vs. my iphone. Maybe money, but that's it.

 

[mrsir2009]

At my school the trend is the exact opposite... the number of people with iPhones is going up due to the fact that second-hand 4S's are so affordable. Pretty much everyone that has an Android here has a $150 POS, and many of them also have an iPod Touch because their phone is such a POS. No flagship Androids at all - anyone that can afford one seems to have gotten an iPhone.

 

[osaga]

Pro:
No company can copy the software or ecosystem.
Easiest to use software and cloud system.
Almost all users are up to date all the time.
Best looking screen, all apps are optimized.
Battery life.
Build quality.
Best customer service.
Best resale value.
Cutting edge hardware.
Embraced by trendsetters, pop culture.

Con:
Expensive.
Smaller screen size lends to a feeling of being outdated, unappealing to new buyers.
Stigma of elitism. Stigma of being a US company.
Lacks newest software gimmicks.
Camera surpassed by some manufacturers.

Obviously Apple will never be able to compete with low cost manufacturers. Price is critical to 70%? of the smartphone market. So then Apple should be dominating the other 30%.

Solution:
If the iphone is the best smartphone (which it is, all things considered) then it should look like it. A larger screen, and a more impressive design. A design so great it lasts 2 years. The iphone 4 accomplished that feat. I hope to god the iphone 6 does too. The 2 year cycle is fine, it gives technology time to improve enough so that the next iteration is actually leap forward. However, if Apple finds itself with a lackluster phone/sales/share price/public opinion, they should not be afraid to abandon it after 1 year. I long for the days when having your iphone sitting on the table next to you at a cafe makes you feel good about yourself. (everyone is guilty of this, regardless of how virtuous you are).

 

[Mad Mac Maniac]

I hope that I am wrong, and hope there will be a new iPhone that will blow everyone away and a more affordable option (whether it's the iPhone 5C or whatever they do) that can compete with the others both on features and price. But thought I would chime in because there seemed to be a groupthink saying that everything is fine because Apple is still making gobs of money even though a smaller and smaller percentage of people have iPhones. Maybe making tons of money isn't the most important thing in the world.

Speaking from Apple's perspective, I think it may be their best interest to produce a slightly more affordable phone, but not to sacrifice profit margin and the brand value in the process. The current rumor today pegs the 5C at $490, which apparently is the current price of the 4. I think Apple could reasonable create a phone for around $400 range that would allow them to maintain a reasonable profit margin, but going any lower than $400 I believe would hurt more than help. That's not the consumer isn't going for anyway. Android can eat away all day at the $100-$300 market and Apple won't blink an eye.

 

[Lara F]

Go look up the Apple vs Samsung trial and their shipped vs actual sales #s. SS had to actually show sales for their tablets and mobile phones to actually say that they were no threat to Apple because their sales were horrible and low. This was in direct contrast to the 10s of millions of shipped units vs the actual sale of a few million.

So yes, there are millions upon millions of android devices that never get sold and are sitting in warehouses and then shipped back and recycled.

IIRC that trial was regarding the very first version of the Galaxy series back in 2009-2010. You can't compare that with the SIII/S4 today (or their tablets that probably do sit on shelves).

 

[ElTorro]

Market share is a worthless metric.

Profit is the metric you measure.

Android has something like 4000+ different mobile phone handsets out there with less then 25% of the profit.

iOS has 5 mobile phone handsets with 75% profit.

Do the math. In fact, here you go.



BTW, I've archived your post so in a couple of years, we can all laugh at you.

Just a reminder that as of 7/31, Apple's smartphone profit is only 3% higher than Samsung's. It went from 69% in 2012 to 53% now. Samsung has 50%.

http://appleinsider.com/articles/13...ne-profits-samsung-at-50-remainder-lose-money

Thought you might want to know the exact numbers

 

[KdParker]

What's funny is you believe IDCs numbers. They are using a 'shipped' metric which doesn't amount to anything.

They are almost always wrong and disproven with usage metrics and actual sales #s from Apple.

Eventhough these numbers aren't completely accurate, it is better than nothing, and I know (like anyone else who has been in this forum for more than a month) the difference between sales vs shipped metrics.

Either way there is a trend when looking at shipped, and WindowPhone is doing better.

 

[NOV]

I was part of that. I've had an iPhone since the day it first came out, every model. I got so bored with it I sold it an got an HTC One. Once the iPhone 6 comes out I might go back, but we'll see about that . This isn't bashing Apple at all, it was just what I did.

Yes I'm quitting the iOS platform too. iOS7 doesn't cut it for me, looks like Apple is lost in endless (yet useless) focusing on color schemes and other icon design issues and losing the bigger picture to deliver a truly innovating new smartphone platform. And we will probably be stuck with a 'mini' screen for the 1 1/2 years.

Probably I'll buy the new LG G2 phone.

 

[PinkyMacGodess]

The device markets will reach the same sort of equilibrium as Mac OS vs Windows. The educated and more affluent (which are a distinct minority) will make up the bulk of Apple customers while the drooling masses will remain in the Windows/Android camp.

It is what it is....$$$ and IQ.

Nah. It's just 'cool' to have an Android phone. People think it's somehow 'anti-social' and 'giving the finger to the man' to own a 'Droid phone. Most of the people I know have switched to the iPhone after Verizon started carrying them, and they just keep upgrading.

Like I said above, all I heard for a few months from a few friends of mine was how they kept losing their address books, and were having other issues with their 'Droids. One couldn't wait for Verizon to pick up the iPhone, but once they did he told me he bought one, and skipped his 'Droid across his parking lot into the curb. Smashing it was fitting for the phone that drove him nuts with its idiosyncrasies ha said. His wife agreed as she was getting tired of the constant swearing and storming around because 'it did it again'.

 

[krravi]

Sorry to ask a painfully obvious (to me) question, but how is "sign in to Google" different than "Connect to iTunes"?

Also I can buy apps, music, movies, books, ring tones, etc, ALL without connecting to my computer. How is that any different?

If you refer to the idea that iTunes has a 'life guard', well then look at the history of malicious apps and other crap that the Android has suffered with since it hit the streets.

I find a lot of the FUD about the iPhone and iTunes is just sturm und drang manufactured to scare people away from the iPhone. Basically a form of gorilla marketing. I for one like the idea that the damn phone works and the apps don't kill it, and I appreciate not losing my address book every few months, etc... To paraphrase a friends teenage daughter: 'Android is cool. It sucks, but it's cool. I just use it to text'. Well, at least Android can text well... Thank god for that, eh...

Sorry, but iTunes is painful... Painfully slow.. painfully a resource hog and just painful to have to resort to that to add music(now its over the air I guess) or files for other apps.....

Its totally not cool to be strung to such a bloatware !

Now, about having a curated store like the iTunes Store vs Android? I agree. Android users should be careful of what they download and from whom they download. Lot of apps(mostly from china) pretending to be a calculator but somehow want to peek at your contacts? Google has got to fix that crap!

 

[Popeye206]

You are right. I am sure there are 150 million devices for Q2 are sitting in secret warehouses in a big conspiracy to make it look like Apple is loosing market share like a deflated balloon.

not my point at all.

I guess we should all just toss in the towel... Android won. Apple is such a failure.

BTW... I wonder how many of the 800K shipped Motorola Xoom tablets made it into customer hands?

 

[Ryth]

Just a reminder that as of 7/31, Apple's smartphone profit is only 3% higher than Samsung's. It went from 69% in 2012 to 53% now. Samsung has 50%.

http://appleinsider.com/articles/13...ne-profits-samsung-at-50-remainder-lose-money

Thought you might want to know the exact numbers

Thought you'd actually want to know REAL numbers. The one you linked was full of errors, using pre vs post tax income, including tons of products that shouldn't be included, off by 18 million units and so on.

http://appleinsider.com/articles/13/07/27/samsung-has-not-dethroned-apple-in-mobile-profits

Twice in the past week, AppleInsider's Daniel Eran Dilger has published detailed analyses of Strategy Analytics' data that strongly suggest a pro-Samsung bias.

The first questioned SA's report that Samsung had "dethroned Apple" in mobile profits.
The second accused SA of "rewriting history" to prove that the iPad's share of the tablet market had shriveled to 28.3%.

The latter report is especially damning because Strategy Analytics' seems to have inflated its earlier estimates of Android tablet sales by more than 11 million units.

 

[UnfetteredMind]

But from the Google/Android point of view, isn't this a great thing? For Samsung, Sony etc. etc. I can see your point, but for Google it's got to be great. Android is spreading throughout the world, and both the rich and poor, developing and developed worlds are becoming familiar with it.

Only if Google is actually getting (1) ad revenue (2) revenue from Google apps or (3) revenue from Google Play store.

If massive numbers of the android growth is in markets such as china and india where they don't use Google Play or Google apps, I'm not sure Google would see it as a great thing (although I guess they'd be happier than them purchasing iPhones).

We'll see if Apple can make any sort of dent with the lower cost (but still middle or high-middle) iPhone. I certainly don't think it will cause a large swing of marketshare back to Apple, but I also don't think it really needs to. As long as they have a healthy App Store and devs are making good profits, it should be ok.

 

[PinkyMacGodess]

Con:
Smaller screen size lends to a feeling of being outdated, unappealing to new buyers.

I saw one of the really large screen 'phones', and I was nearly brought to laughter... It was close to holding an iPad to your ear! It looked like an inside joke: 'How many people can we get to hoist one of these boards to their ear?' It looks like a person is about to bludgeon themselves with the thing...

I predict that the era of 'massive screens' will fade, and people still stuck with them will be laughed at... They might have bigger biceps, but they will be the ones on the receiving end of snickers and guffaws...

 

[krravi]

Of course, most of them aren't really Android phones, but why quibble?



It happened two years ago.



That's not how you had to do it when you got your iPhone 4S 2 years ago.

So what is your definition of Android phones? The ones that are from Google?

That exactly is how I had to do it. Now that I remember, I got my phone in the mail(through ATT) and not from a store. Still, instead of just connecting to wifi had to do it through iTunes.

Now that I have my iPhone 4S reset and ready for someone else, guess what screen shows up when I turn it on? "Connect to iTunes"!

 

[UnfetteredMind]

Yes I'm quitting the iOS platform too. iOS7 doesn't cut it for me, looks like Apple is lost in endless (yet useless) focusing on color schemes and other icon design issues and losing the bigger picture to deliver a truly innovating new smartphone platform. And we will probably be stuck with a 'mini' screen for the 1 1/2 years.

Probably I'll buy the new LG G2 phone.

There is plenty of new features in iOS7, it's just that you've missed them from all the crazy comments focusing on the new icons

 

[avanpelt]

Androids are fine phones, but they are still nothing more than copies. They have some things they do better, but from what I've experienced, many stupid things they do far worse.

Agreed 100%. It amazes me that you'll still hear Android users talking about having to "wipe their phones and start over". I had a Motorola Droid X for a year and a half before I finally regained my sanity and came back to the iPhone.

The not so funny thing is that "wipe and reload" was the "solution" for many random problems that happened with Android back when I was running Gingerbread; and it's still the solution many times today. Listen to one of the many Android podcasts and it won't be long before you hear, "I had to wipe and reload my phone this weekend and it feels like I got a brand new phone again -- it's so fast!"

I'm sorry, I am a small business owner and my cell phone is my primary means of communication -- not a toy. Forgive me if I don't want to have to wipe and reload my phone once a quarter just because the phone suddenly slows to a crawl, doesn't want to accept calls, reboots randomly, or suddenly won't launch an app that's worked fine hundreds of times before.

As long as this constant "wipe and reload" nonsense continues with Android, many people will put up with Android and foolishly believe that "wipe and reload" is just par for the course with any smartphone just like they're used to doing with their computer.

 

[Ryth]

I saw one of the really large screen 'phones', and I was nearly brought to laughter... It was close to holding an iPad to your ear! It looked like an inside joke: 'How many people can we get to hoist one of these boards to their ear?' It looks like a person is about to bludgeon themselves with the thing...

I predict that the era of 'massive screens' will fade, and people still stuck with them will be laughed at... They might have bigger biceps, but they will be the ones on the receiving end of snickers and guffaws...

We were actually joking about this the other night standing in line at Cafe Rio. Some dude in front of us had a Samsung S4. Looked so stupid up against his ear, like he was holding a small paperback book.

The large screen phablet is good for a niche group, especially at work...but for an average user, it looks really stupid up against their ear.

 

[BaldiMac]

So what is your definition of Android phones? The ones that are from Google?

No. Phones that meet the compatibility requirements for Android.

That exactly is how I had to do it. Now that I remember, I got my phone in the mail(through ATT) and not from a store. Still, instead of just connecting to wifi had to do it through iTunes.

It may have been how you chose to do it. The iPhone 4S shipped with iOS 5 which did not require that you connect it to iTunes.

 

[Chupa Chupa]

The device markets will reach the same sort of equilibrium as Mac OS vs Windows. The educated and more affluent (which are a distinct minority) will make up the bulk of Apple customers while the drooling masses will remain in the Windows/Android camp.

It is what it is....$$$ and IQ.

No it's different because business has adopted iOS. Every survey I've seen shows iOS users spend more $ than Android users so unlike with Mac vs PC where there wasn't much incentive to develop Mac s/w, that's not true with iOS because there is profit to be made with it. So while Macs quickly because also-ran and niche computers, iOS will remain mainstream even if it's Mercedes to Androids "Chevrolet Malibu" OS as far as marketshare is concerned. Mercedes doesn't sell nearly as many cars as Chevy but it's a heck of a lot more profitable company.

 

[dragje]

Apple keeps putting their head in the sand. The numbers show it IS happening, no matter how special you think apple is.

Think Diffferent right? I'm not surprised, I could product this massive downfall a year ago.For me it' pure nostalgia, I worked with Apple products at the edge of Apple's momentum of bankruptcy. Bill Gates played an interesting roll back then for saving Apple back then, how ironic

I think it's good that Apple starts becoming a much smaller company in the future. They will certainly not disappear in the air that easy, they became simply to big for that. But to remain big they need to come up with either brilliant new revolutionary devices (no not iPad 6,7,8 or iPhone 6,7,8...but >new<) and/or they should drastically lower the prices for their devices. Pads and smartphones from other companies are not only way cheaper but can deliver almost the same and some ever more by now (hardware wise).

The market has been served. Pad's have become devices that play a role in daily life among many people, for certain that count's for smart phones. There is still lot's to gain both marketwise as for invention but at the end the consumer compares possibilities and prizes and a bit to often Apple looses that compensation from the customer.

 

[krravi]

No. Phones that meet the compatibility requirements for Android.



It may have been how you chose to do it. The iPhone 4S shipped with iOS 5 which did not require that you connect it to iTunes.

And how did you conclude that those cheap Chinese Android sets don't meet the compatibility requirements for Android? Heck I have a Matricom HTPC that runs Android and does everything except make a phone call!

It's been a while, but I am pretty sure I had to connect it to iTunes. Now that it is running iOS 6.0 or so I will try to activate it again with my present SIM card since it is unlocked and will report the findings.

 

[NOV]

There is plenty of new features in iOS7, it's just that you've missed them from all the crazy comments focusing on the new icons

There may be new features but if Apple wants to stay ahead of the pack they will need a radical improvement of their OS. Otherwise their market share will keep on slipping.

 

[Chatter]

Not when the average sale price significantly decreases.

What??? Sigh.
Unless you are selling at a loss, more sales = more profit. You can argue that profit % may be lower but the "math" you are proposing...

 

[AT06]

IOS is available on one phone (or 3 if you count the 4/4s). Android is available on hundreds of phones. It's not really a fair comparison IMO.