The market share for mobile operating systems is dominated by Android and iOS. Are there even other contenders out there? The answer is… yes and no. The market is evolving and there are more options for custom mobile app development. While there are other mobile operating systems OS available, you’d be hard pressed to find a device that runs on one.
According to statistics from StatCounter, android has lost a substantial chunk of its global mobile operating system market share to iOS in 2020. These numbers revealed that Android adoption globally had declined by nearly 5%, while iOS jumped by just over the same number.
Apple’s gains could possibly be attributed to the fact that its iPhone 11 flagship was by far the best selling smartphone of the first three quarters of 2020, that according to data from tracking firm Omdia, the company sold 37.7 million iPhone 11 units in the first half of 2020 alone.
That is more than three times the number of the runner-up – Samsung’s mid-range Galaxy A51 – which posted 11.4 million sales. Additionally, the company also holds four other spots in the top 10 with the 2020 iPhone SE, iPhone XR, iPhone 11 Pro Max, and iPhone 11 Pro.
The Research Group Canalys has claimed, the iPhone 11 continued to lead sales in Q3 2020, with 16 million units sold, followed by the new iPhone SE on 10 million. However, when it comes to total market share, Apple only managed to capture 12.4% in this quarter. It is expected to show a significant recovery in Q4 2020 as its latest flagship – the iPhone 12 – went on sale.
Android still dominates
Over the course of the entire year, however, Android smartphones from Samsung, Huawei, Xiaomi and other manufacturers still outsold Apple by some margin, so this means that Google’s mobile OS enjoys a healthy lead over Apple’s, with 71.18% of smartphone and tablet users running Android as opposed to 28.19% on iOS as of November 2020.
Other smaller mobile operating systems accounted for less than 1% of the total market share. All of the operating systems – including the Linux-based KaiOS for phones which still rely on keypads – saw declines. Microsoft’s failed Windows Phone OS now sits at a measly 0.03% – down from 0.15% in November 2019.
This comes after the company officially stopped providing updates for the OS on 10 December 2019. The table below shows the global market share of the most popular mobile operating systems as of November 2020.
