As the choice of mobile operating systems has expanded over the past four or so years, the rivalries between the OS manufacturers have grown stronger and this has filtered down to the users of each system, with many users liking to claim that their OS whether it be iOS, Android, Windows or even Symbian is the "best". Of course, the best operating system is objective, depending what you aim to use it for and how well each fits your need, so the point of this article is not to get my viewpoint on this across (though I am planning to write an article on this in the near future) but to answer another important question. Which operating system is the most commonly used?
This topic has been hotly debated, as different statistics can seem to show a different outcome, but for this article I will be focusing on UK USERS ONLY as this is the primary audience for this blog. I will be comparing the percentage of the market that each provider has and also the growth.
It can be seen on the graph that iOS is currently the most popular OS in the United Kingdom, with a market share of over 40%, just ahead of RIM's blackberry which has a share of around 38%. It should however be noted that the market share of iOS is falling steadily, which could be down to the growing popularity of Google's android, which now has around 13% of the market.
From the graph I would predict that the likely dominant mobile OS's for the near future will be iOS and Android. Personally I find it staggering how popular Blackberry actually is, considering the advantages of both Android and iOS over this platform. (For example, iOS has over 400,000 apps, Android over 250,000 whilst Blackberry users have less than 17,000 to choose from).
it must also be noted that in the next few months, Microsoft's windows phone 7 platform will likely make an appearance on the graph as a stand alone OS. In my opinion it is likely that business users will switch from Blackberry to Windows Phone 7 as the blackberry platform seems outdated and suffering from a lack of innovation. (I am currently in the process of writing an article about Windows Phone 7, check back soon for that!)
In conclusion, if you are looking to buy a new phone and have an interest in using your phone to download apps as well as to stay inline with the competition in terms of updates and progression I would strongly advise against buying anything other than an Android or iOS handset, at least until Windows Phone 7 has matured slightly and it becomes obvious where this platform stands. It should be noted that the more users a platform has, the more apps and software will be developed for it; for an example compare Windows and Mac OSX, as windows has far more users, far more developers have developed far more programs and software for it. Although iOS had a huge head start (it was released before Android) giving it it's huge market share it will be interesting to see over the coming months whether Android becomes the primary platform for developers to work with (this will be strongly influenced by worldwide usage, as android has a much stronger user base worldwide than in the UK). I think it is a foregone conclusion that before long, more applications will be available for Android than iOS. What will happen to Blackberry however remains to be seen...
Let me know what you think about your phone and/or operating system in the comments below!
5 comments:
Hi Darren here. I was wondering if the above statistics regarding market share of mobile operating systems included iPod Touch and iPad users in it's iOS count and whether any potential surge in the portable tablet market which Apple seems to have laid it's flag down and claimed could affect future numbers?
Great blog btw
Darren
Thanks for your comment.
From the FAQ on the site providing the original data "We define a mobile device as a pocket-sized computing device, typically having a display screen with touch input or a miniature keyboard". To me that suggests that iPod touches are included in the count, but iPads and other tablets are not.
I think part of the reason for the iPads popularity is it's relatively low "bottom" price point of the cheapest model. Customers are used to being able to purchase an Android device for less money than a similar Apple device and when a device exists that can comfortably achieve this, I would expect Android to take a larger share of the tablet market.
Some more information regarding the statistics can be found at the following FAQ here
Thanks for the response, really interesting read.
Btw for what it's worth I think iOS is by far the superior mobile OS atm and when it comes to looking, as you really have to, at the software-hardware combo nothing from the Android or RIM or any other market comes close to replicating the iPhone experience.
Which do you think is the superior operating system?
Personally I like iOS for the same reason as you, the software/hardware combination, giving a sense that you know your phone will be supported by apple into the future. It would be interesting to see what would happen if google attempted to do something similar with android.
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