Apple conquers the world: iOS market by country

According to Kantar WorldPanel, one of the leading international market research agencies, over the past year, iOS market share has continued to grow worldwide in countries such as the US, Australia, the UK, Germany, France, Italy and rural China, although in all of these Android still holds a larger share of the market. The only places where iOS has declined are Japan and Spain.

In a market as demanding as the American one, the operating system of Google lost 1.81% market share, while iOS gained almost 31%. In Europe, three out of four smartphones use the Android operating system, with a market share of 73.41 TP4T compared to iOS's 22.71 TP4T, but Apple's operating system is growing faster. In China, Android reached a global market share of 83.21 TP4T, rising almost ten points during this period.

Regardless of current data, Kantar likes to predict future trends and the latest one has been quite surprising. After the good reception of the Nokia 3310 at MWC 2017, they point out that Nokia returns to Europe with a bang thanks to Android, and could even surpass Huawei thanks to the good brand image that users retain of them after years of offering products that combine good prices, great quality and a great user experience.

The latest mobile operating system usage data from Kantar Worldpanel ComTech reveals that iOS increased its market share by 0.7 percentage points in Europe during the last three months of 2017, to 24.81 TP4Q, across the five major European markets, despite a market share drop of 2.4 percentage points in a country as important as the United Kingdom. The strong results in Spain and Germany, where iOS is close to a quarter of the market, were also repeated in urban China, Japan and Australia thanks to the performance of Apple's three newest mobile phones.

iPhone market share is matched by loyalty that borders on 96%

Apple's flagship, the iPhone X has been among the three best-selling devices in recent months both in Europe and in major capitals China, Japan, Australia and the United States. iOS loyalty hit a new high of 96.1 TP4T in the United States, although its share of sales fell 0.5 percentage points to 43.9 TP4T in the country.

Despite iOS's good results in most markets, The decline in Android has been somewhat cushioned by the almost complete disappearance of Windows., whose share is now below 1% in all markets except Italy.

Dominic Sunnebo, Global Director of Kantar Worldpanel ComTech comments: “Full results for the fourth quarter of the year show that Apple's decision to launch three new handsets in a staggered period, including the ultra-high-end iPhone X, has been a good one. Under Apple's current launch structure, you'd always expect the flagship model to be the best-selling device in major developed markets, but with the iPhone X priced so high, the purchasing power of potential customers has become a realistic factor. With the iPhone X ranking in the top three best-selling devices in all key regions in December, especially in urban China where it was the best-selling model, the pricing strategy appears to have been vindicated.“.

“With all the attention focused on Apple, it's easy to overlook Samsung's performance in the final quarter of 2017. In Europe, Samsung has performed very well, with its smartphone sales share growing by 2.2 percentage points to 31.31 TP4Q, ahead of not only Apple but also Huawei, which has enjoyed a prolonged period of growth. In Spain, local brand BQ is starting to suffer as a result of Xiaomi's official launch, with a market share deficit of 3.8 percentage points to 8.51 TP4Q in the three months to December.“.

In the US, the terminal market continues to be dominated by Samsung and Apple, which achieved a combined share of 70.81 TP4T in the last three months of the year. However, Motorola and Google have managed to make some inroads, moving 0.5 percentage points and 1.0 percentage points respectively to 5.61 TP4Q and 2.81 TP4Q.

Despite the brand value and its revolutionary beginnings, iPhone is today one of the least innovative devices

When Steve Jobs took the stage and introduced the first iPhone, the surprise was not as great as the true value that the product would have today. It had been known for some time that Apple was going to launch its own phone. At that time there was a high degree of expectation, among other things because the mobile phone fever had already begun and Apple was a benchmark in technology.

In fact, they had already made a name for themselves in the sector by teaming up with Motorola to deploy iTunes on a phone. An experiment that turned out to be a complete disaster. At that time, the phones that many people wanted were the high-end Nokia phones. Especially the Nokia N95, which was launched in September 2006 and came onto the market in March 2007.

Nokia, a revolutionary brand in many ways, as demonstrated by its advanced cameras, has had a major drawback in recent years: its Symbian operating system was light years away from what ended up being iOS, the cornerstone of Apple's phones and tablets.

When the first iPhone hit the market, it sparked a multitude of conflicting opinions. Especially because of its price and the lack of a keyboard. But the phone opened the door to a world we couldn't even imagine in 2007: the omnipresence of smartphones.

Perhaps not even Apple suspected that the iPhone would end up being the ray of light that would guide the rest of the sector, although in recent years, being a key product, it is no longer the point of reference as it was several generations ago.

Among other things, because Samsung, after spending years openly taking inspiration from Apple, finally managed to stay one step ahead of the Cupertino company in many ways. Something that was seen with the launch of phones larger than 4.5 inches and even the Samsung Galaxy Note range that arrived almost five years before the iPhone dared to adopt these dimensions.

One of the pillars of the iPhone from the beginning was its operating system: iOS

In any case, the iPhone has transformed the lives of those who had never owned one. Above all, to achieve the implementation of the first mobile operating system that worked in such a simple way. As well as making it exclusive, like they did with the Mac operating system on computers, so that no other phone could use it.

It didn't take long for Android to catch up with iOS and even overtake it by bringing in much more innovative technologies.But from the very beginning, the battle between Apple and Google was fierce. Almost no one uses their phone to make calls anymore since the iPhone unleashed the massive use of apps. In fact, the arrival of the App Store in 2008 is probably one of the great technological milestones of the last decade.

Not long ago, Blackberry OS was the smartphone of executives and the most demanding users, while the rest of the smartphone ecosystem lived with the aforementioned Symbian. But everything has changed in such a short time that it almost seems like a dream. We are at a point in time where iOS and Android are fighting head to head and the market share of other operating systems is totally marginal.

Android provides freedom from the rigidity of iOS, which in turn ensures stability, security, and updates that cover the vast majority of the iOS device range. Although the battle is on and the price is a big difference compared to many Android devices, the reality is that their data continues to grow.