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Android's Vast Global Mobile Market Share Shrinks While iOS Continues to Grow

Michael Scrip said:
Eh... does it really matter?

Every three months we get estimates from a variety of external sources since companies don't have to disclose actual sales numbers. And the estimates fluctuate constantly.

But it's been basically Android 70% and iOS 30% in worldwide market share for a while.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯
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Um... It has *never* been 70% and 30% in market share in usage ( OS usage ) *nor* market share in shipment.
 
alphaswift said:
I miss Windows Phone. So many great features.
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Right? I miss Windows Phone also. One has to admit Windows Continuum was awesome and way ahead of it's time. Way before Dec on Android and last time I checked Apple never had anything like it. MS letting that die (obviously because they saw the writing on the wall with their mobile devision) was my biggest let down.
 
Skyscraperfan said:
We need more competition, even if you like iOS or Android. A whole market just shared by two players is not a healthy market. The 30% commission in the app stores makes that clear.
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I for one disagree that diversity in operating systems is good for developers and consumers. Having two, so there is at least some sort of competition going on to push each other forward, is fine. Having more causes too much fragmentation where developers will choose between them rather than support all. Result is less efficient for developers, and fragmentation for users where they may not be able to do everything they want on one platform.

If anything, we need two relatively balanced competitors. Actually this is what we have now, this graph doesn’t tell the whole story. iOS customers is on average more willing to spend money on apps, so basically most developers must support both if they want to be serious.

For PC’s we don’t need more players, we need Apple to become a stronger competitor to Windows.
 
Michael Scrip said:
Ok... then what are the numbers?

But the question still remains... does it really matter?

🤣
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For users, these numbers don’t matter. What matters is that both are strong enough that essentially any meaningful app is available on both. This graph is just one metric that goes into this, the reality is much more complex.
 
Velli said:
What matters is that both are strong enough that essentially any meaningful app is available on both.
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But most meaningful apps are available on both platforms, right? Android and iOS are strong.

Even though Apple has only 20% market share or whatever the number is... there are over a billion iPhones out in the world today.

So there are more than enough potential iPhones owners for a developer to sell apps to.

If there's a developer who is wondering if they should develop an iPhone app... the answer is yes... yes they should.

😛

This graph is just one metric that goes into this, the reality is much more complex.
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Can you expand on that, please?

I'm intrigued.
 
Skyscraperfan said:
How powerful Google is became visible when it stopped providing Android updates to Huawei phones because of US sanctions. That made it very hard for Huawei to sell phones in many parts of the world, although their phones are much better than Samsung phones in the same price range for example. The main losers were the customers.
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That's pure nonsense. If you want chinaphones, there is poco and xiaomi for you, those are still supported and much better than huawei, you know the huawei that stole the foldable tech from samsung years ago.

There is no same price range for chinaphones vs others, can't be, as those never don't spend a dime on R&D.
 
25% worldwide market share for a brand that mostly sells premium devices (or at least devices that cost a lot higher on an average than the competitor) is pretty impressive.
 
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SirAnthonyHopkins said:
what makes you think that would lead to a drop in the number of iOS users, as opposed to it just remaining steady? Surely Android manufacturers had the same issues?
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Basic supply & demand. People were having to wait quite a while for their iPhone orders to ship. Mainly most new iPhone buyers seem to give their used iPhones to family & friends, so those people may be waiting for their hand me downs. Some of those hand me down iPhones die and eventually need recycling. When those family & friends used iPhones end up without an iPhone I suspect they purchase a cheap Android phone to tide them over. Hence the dip… It’s a theory off the top of my head, do with it as you please.
 
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Michael Scrip said:
But most meaningful apps are available on both platforms, right? Android and iOS are strong.

Even though Apple has only 20% market share or whatever the number is... there are over a billion iPhones out in the world today.

So there are more than enough potential iPhones owners for a developer to sell apps to.

If there's a developer who is wondering if they should develop an iPhone app... the answer is yes... yes they should.

😛



Can you expand on that, please?

I'm intrigued.
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1st part: Yes, both Android and iOS are strong, that was my point. I believe the competition is currently in a healthy state.

On the complexity: What I mean is that the strength balance between the two platforms is not simply defined by number of users, or which platform sold the most last quarter. The attractiveness for developers is highly affected by for instance demographic spread, geographic spread, even typical personality spread (i.e. Mac users being mostly creative types who care about having the new thing, which makes them valuable as customers). None of these numbers can stand on it’s own, it’s woven together. I see the strength as balanced, but by any one metric, you might see it as significantly skewed.

For instance, I work with some hardware engineers who have a very hard time understanding that even though there are many more Android users in the world, most of our actual customers use iOS.

I can easily come up with a boatload of cases where the typical user is an iOS user. Less so for Android, but this is alleviated by sheer numbers. Two sides of the same coin - Android customers are on average less valuable, but there are more of them.
 
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SFjohn said:
Basic supply & demand. People were having to wait quite a while for their iPhone orders to ship. Mainly most new iPhone buyers seem to give their used iPhones to family & friends, so those people may be waiting for their hand me downs. Some of those hand me down iPhones die and eventually need recycling. When those family & friends used iPhones end up without an iPhone I suspect they purchase a cheap Android phone to tide them over. Hence the dip… It’s a theory off the top of my head, do with it as you please.
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Personally I believe iOS wins on hand me downs over time, they are simply used for longer on average. There is a big market for 5 year old iPhones, while “noone” is using a 5 year old Android. This is why you may see iOS active user market share increase, even though new sales does not.
 
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