The report claims that seven out of 10 phones in the market today run Android, while around two of them are running iOS. The rest run on a little-known or obscure mobile operating system. According to the report compiled by StockApps.com, despite Android’s seeming hold on the market, its dominance has been waning over the past few years. For example, Android had a global market share of 77.32% in July 2018. However, its market share is down to 69.74% as of January 2022. This effectively means that Android has lost 7.58% of the market share over a nearly four-year period. Finance expert for StockApps.com, Edith Reads, attributes the shrinking market share to the rise in competition. “Android’s loss of market share boils down to heightened competition within the OS space. A look at the data shows that iOS gained 6% between July 2018 and January 2022. From 19.4% then, Apple has grown its OS market share to 25.49%. Other small scale OS developers account for the remaining 1.58% that Google shed,” Reads said.
Although Android’s dominance is shrinking, it is still the leading mobile OS in the world
Despite the gloomy market share, Reads believes all is not lost for Android just yet. The platform still holds a commanding lead over iOS. It would take nothing short of a miracle to upend Google’s operating system from that mantle. The fact that Android devices continue to be affordable and hence easily accessible to a large portion of the global population is also a factor in its sizeable lead. As per data cited by StockApps.com, 84% of all phones sold in Africa are Android, while iOS only makes up 14%. In Europe, Android registers a 69.32% market share, whereas iOS runs on 30% of devices. Meanwhile, in South America and Asia, Android enjoys 90% and 81% market share, respectively. iOS takes 10% of the pie in South America and 18% in Asia, while the rest of the operating systems account for less than 1%. As for North America and Oceania, iOS stands at 54% market share, while Android only gets 45%. The remaining 1% is shared between other OS developers, according to StockApps. So while Apple will be pleased with the North American market share, it still has a lot of catching up to do in global markets.
