Over the course of 2010, we have been hearing about Android’s dramatic rise and its eventual usurping of the throne of the most used smartphone Operating System on the planet. However, new data from research firm comScore has some very interesting statistics about the state of Android vis a vis iOS in the important US market. Here, while Android has managed to take a clear lead in the smartphones segment, if we consider the amount of mobile devices shipped – inclusive of smartphones, tablets and music players, iOS manages to outshine Android and by a fair margin. According to comScore, there are 37.9 million iOS users in the US as of now – compared to just 23.8 million Android users.
The major factor that pushes iOS above Android are the sales of the iPad which did exceptionally well last year. While Android has undoubtedly took the smartphone space by storm, it hasn’t managed to do the same thing when it comes to tablets. It was thought that with the arrival of Honeycomb, that would change – however, initial sales of the Motorola Xoom has been far from encouraging. That said, it still is too early to judge whether Honeycomb would fail. There are hordes of Honeycomb powered tablets yet to be released and as of now there are very little apps available for Honeycomb powered tablets. The market is still maturing. Looking at the way Android has grown in 2010, we might be looking at quite different numbers for Android OS for tablets early as next year.
comScore has also published interesting stats regarding the kind of people who own an iPad. According to them, the average iPad user is more than an Apple fanboy and that they are more likely to have an Apple product than say a BlackBerry or an Android based device. To out these figures in numbers, the study says that 27.3% of iPad users also have an iPhone while the share for BlackBerry and Android devices are pegged at 17.5% and 14.2% respectively. 27% of iPad users are between the ages of 25 and 34 and 49.4% of iPad users make $100,000 a year.
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