iOS vs Android; who wins the race?

The mobile market is primarily dominated by Apple and Google wherein iOS and Android operating systems manage to dwarf all others in the market. Both the platforms have their own share of profits over time. Apple experienced a surge in its market share over the past couple of months, thanks to its iPhone 7 launch. However, Android devices have not been left behind either especially given Google’s Pixel launch among many others.

A new study by Kantar Worldpanel ComTech suggests that while Apple’s iPhone has had a strong holiday season, Google’s Android continues to dominate overall. “The latest smartphone OS sales data from Kantar Worldpanel ComTech shows Android sales declined in the US, GB, and France, as iOS continued to make gains across most regions in the three months ending November 2016,” the report started off. “For Android, this marks the sixth consecutive period of decline in the US, at 55.3 per cent of all smartphone sales, down from 60.4 per cent in the same period a year earlier,” the report added.

The report goes on to point out that iPhone sales in late 2016, following the release of the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus accounted for 43 per cent in the US market which much higher when compared with 37 per cent during the same period in 2015. In UK, iPhone market share rose from 39 per cent in 2015 to 48 per cent in 2016. At the same time, Android’s dominance in US appears to be slipping.

According to the same report, Android accounted for 55 per cent of smartphone sales in US, down from 60 per cent during the same period in 2015. However, even though Android decreased in the US over the past year, the brand new Pixel phone by Google made strong gains, rising to 1.3 per cent of sales in the three months ending November 2016, with more than half of that business done through Verizon.

It’s hard to predict what the future holds as far as these two platforms are concerned as they continue to prevail in what appears to be a neck-to-neck competition.