I have always been very intrigued by smartphone sales numbers. They can be misleading. A $100 Android and a $299 Android can be very different in terms of customer profile and apps / internet usage. So while we may ignore sales numbers of Android devices and look at the apps ecosystem of iOS in smartphone wars, here is an interesting piece of stat from Statcounter. But before we begin, hey, this is based on stats by Statcounter, which wouldn’t be 100% accurate, but it still gives a very good idea of where the market is headed.
In US, Android commands over 36% mobile browser marketshare. The figure has surged significantly over the last one year. iPhone follows at 29%. Blackberry at around 13% and iPod touch backs up at 10.5%. Now if we of course compare iOS vs Android, Apple still leads, but in the smartphone space, it is clear that Android has taken a decent lead. We should not expect this to change, Android has more numbers. Period.
Here is how the graph looks:
However the most interesting observation comes when you toggle the stats to worldwide view. Opera, which is no 6 in US at 2.66% mobile browser marketshare, all of a sudden becomes the market leader! This speaks about the feature phone and cheaper smartphones trend outside US. Opera Mobile rules that market. But as they would transition to Android, that lead should significantly reduce. You would also see the downward trend of Nokia, Blackberry etc. The lesser said the better.
