Market Shares of Leading Operating Systems Released

Android and iOS are the common Operating Systems used mainly these days. Android, which is Linux-based is partly1 open source and generally more customizable whereas iOS has uniform design elements. Apple was the first to introduce the iPhone. It flagged the way for smartphones and shortly Google went on to launch the Android mobile operating system. Ever since, both mobile phone platforms are in direct competition and trying to leave each other behind. Considering on whom you’re asking or what aspects you’re looking at, both the Android and iOS knock down each other in different categories and in different constituencies.

It all depends on user choice, Android fans would say Android is the best and vice versa, but it’s not the real truth. In some countries of Europe, Android is still on the top with a 68.4% share of the market but iOS saw a small growth of about 20.3%.

According to Kantar Worldpanel’s ComTech, iOS is gaining more popularity in Spain, Italy, Germany, France, and UK. The number may be far from Android’s (about a third) but Google’s mobile platform share decreased by 3.1% points. Unexpectedly, Windows Phone gain 1.8 points, same as Apple’s iOS. These numbers are only for the first quarter of 2015 and are being compared to last year’s first quarter.

EU5	3 m/e MAR 2014	3 m/e MAR 2015	% pt. Change
Android	71.5	68.4	-3.1
iOS	18.6	20.3	1.7
Windows	8.1	9.9	1.8
Other	1.8	1.4	-0.4

While, in Chinese market, iOS is also making its mark.   In a time period of only one year, iOS shares are rapidly spreading. From 17.9% share last year, iOS is now at 26.1%. The credit of this success can be given to the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. While Android’s share decreased by 8 percent, last quarter was 72% whereas, the share in first quarter of 2014 was 80%.

CHINA	3 m/e MAR 2014	3 m/e MAR 2015	% pt. Change
Android	80.0	72.0	-8.0
iOS	17.9	26.1	9.2
Windows	1.2	1.2	0
Other	0.9	0.7	-0.2

However in Japan and France we saw some decrease in Apple iOS share by a few points only. Windows Phone gained 5.8% share in France while Android and iOS both loose some points.

From all this comparison across different regions, we can assume that Apple is snatching some noteworthy points from Android. It looks like Android is getting away from its path while the iOS numbers are growing.