Across Mobile Device Market, Apple's iOS Dominates Android

April 19, 2011 at 12:42 pm PT

Some new data points that belie Android’s mounting gains in the mobile device market: Though it may be the leading smartphone OS in the United States, Android is not the leading mobile device OS. That honor belongs to Apple’s iOS.

According to new data from comScore MobiLens, Android has an installed user base of 23.8 million across smartphones and tablets. Which is far smaller than that of iOS, when you count the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. Taken together, those three devices are used by some 37.8 million people–59 percent more than the number using Android.

“These data clearly illustrate the Apple ecosystem extends far beyond the iPhone,” says comScore SVP Mark Donovan. “Though it’s frequently assumed that the Apple user base is composed of dedicated Apple ‘fanboys,’ there’s not a tremendous amount of overlapping mobile device access among these users. This of course has significant implications for the developer community as they consider the market potential in developing applications for different mobile platforms.”

The lesson here: Smartphone market share and platform market share are not equivalent.

Tagged with: Android, Apple, comScore, digital, Google, iOS, John Paczkowski, software

comments so far. Add yours.

Anonymous

Wow, no kidding.

Anybody, except anal ists, tech writers, & “financial” journalists, who are familiar with Apple devices could have & HAVE BEEN saying this for MONTHS.

And they didn’t have to do no stinkin’ study to know this.

Ayuh
Anonymous

What is amazing is if you compare addressable market. Android is available on all US carriers, in all regions. iOS is on only 2 carriers, and was on only 1 until just a couple of months ago. For Android to have been put in front of so many potential customers, often for free, and have sold as little as it has speaks to its lack of desirability, and the exact opposite can be said about iPhone.

Worldwide, iOS is only available to about 35% of mobile users, yet it accounts for over 50% of mobile handset profits. So they can double almost triple their addressable market. What are their profits, then? 75%? It is an amazing story.
Anonymous

Within minutes of this article’s publish time, Google’s already hammered stock price turns down.
Anonymous

Did an analyst actually use the word “Fanboys” in his report? Really?
http://twitter.com/james_alley James Alley

There’s also a big difference between number of devices in the field and the amount of traffic these devices generate. For months now I’ve been skeptical of Android Domination headlines, when I see in server logs that iOS outstrips Android by more than 3 to 1. It seems that Android is on a good growth trend, but that in real terms it is not even close to surpassing iOS. At least, not yet. That growth trend may get Android to that leading position in a couple of years, however.

There may be a lot of Android buyers out there, but for now, it’s iOS adopters who use their devices more when it comes to consuming web content.
http://profiles.google.com/karassik Nishan & Julie Karassik

So, what. What is the growth rate of these two OS systems? This article misses the point. Kind of like only looking at a Balance Sheet to tell you how a company is doing while ignoring the P&L. I don’t really care about the iOS on iTouch or Tablet (to some degree). There isn’t any competition yet to those two devices from Android, it isn’t an Apple to Apple comparison.
Anonymous

Math – geeze. 59% is NOT “about twice”. It’s closer to “half again”.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1273410007 Justin M. Fure

Question: Do we know which versions of iOS and which version of Android this study measured?

Comment: The fact of the matter isn’t “who’s winning”, although I’m sure Apple “fanboys” have been waiting for this article since the media picked up on Android’s marketshare blast. The fact of the matter is that Android has been SHREDDING iPhone’s market share. Since all the other results are apparently wrong, where is the “official” results “proving” that iPhone has not been losing marketshare to Android? Oh, wait… shoot. That will be quite hard to prove since iPhone HAS been losing marketshare to Android.
http://profiles.google.com/wikipedia.mensch A Mensch

How many of the Apple devices were owned by the same person?

And I would question using server logs to determine OS usage. What content is being provided? iTunes? That’s like saying 95% of visitors to a set of servers are from Brazil and assuming that Brazilians make up the largest number of all Internet users. Except nobody mentioned that the servers host Portugese-language-only content.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=743818678 Marvin Nakajima

Ah, well, Another stat where iOS will lead maybe a year or two and be overtaken by Android..
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=743818678 Marvin Nakajima

According to the comscore report this article references, supposedly multiple iOS device users are counted only once.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=743818678 Marvin Nakajima

Since this is the first time they have done a comprehensive report of ‘connected’ devices including tablets and iTouch and such, it would be interesting to see the growth in 3 months when they most likely will release another report.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=743818678 Marvin Nakajima

I think that part was not the author of the article but a ‘quote’ from the comscore report.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=743818678 Marvin Nakajima

Yes, the 2 LARGEST carriers.. Verizon 31.1%; AT&T 25.2% of US before T-Mobile merge. Besides that only applies to the smartphone.. Other devices such as the iPod and iTouch are sold in a larger market including Walmart and Best Buy among others.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=743818678 Marvin Nakajima

Oh, and considering profits, the 30% cut Apple takes for sales of Apps is profit for them whereas the 30% cut Google takes is given to the carrier over which the Android smartphone is connected. If I was a carrier which do YOU think I would want to sell more of?

Across Mobile Device Market, Apple's iOS Dominates Android

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