We have to be fair here and say that Apple were really the first major player in the smartphone operating system battle and have managed to hold a fairly dominant position at the top for quite some time now. The iPhone is by far the most popular smartphone and a lot of that is thanks mainly to it’s brilliantly simple operating system.
However as we all know, Android is on the scene, and making an impact big time as the first real competitor that’s manged to dig itself out of a rut and into the mainstream.
As you can see from the below chart from Quantcast, Android is storming ahead now taking up 25% of the total market of mobile Web Consumption in the US. Apple’s iOS platform for the iPhone is now showing signs of decline and has gone from nearly 70% of the total smartphone consumption in 2009, to just 56% of it barely a year later.
Android on the other hand has exploded from about 8% at the same time last year, to an incredible 25% during the same time period, if this rate keeps up, it will probably be level with the iOS platform within the next 12 months.
It really is incredible the speed at which Android is digging into the smartphone market, but then again I guess people are more willing to adopt different operating systems in their mobile devices, than on their laptops and desktops.
Poor old RIM, who were really the only people in this market 5 years ago, haven’t really managed to get anywhere themselves, still hovering around the 10% mark thanks to it’s small, but loyal base of users.
Apple and Google are clearly the two fighting for dominance at this point, and while Apple may be in the lead, they had a headstart and Google are hot on their heals and showing no signs of slowing up.
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