Nearly 9 Out of 10 Smartphones Shipped Run On Android (cnet.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from CNET: Google's Android operating system was the big winner in a big time for worldwide phone shipments, market researcher Strategy Analytics reported Wednesday. Android captured 88 percent of all smartphone shipped in the third quarter of 2016, a period that also marks the fastest growth rate in a year. "Android's gain came at the expense of every major rival platform," Strategy Analytics' Linda Sui said in a press release. "Apple iOS lost ground to Android and dipped to 12 percent [market]share," primarily because of "lackluster" sales in China and Africa, she said. And don't bother looking for BlackBerry and Microsoft Windows phones in the mix. They "all but disappeared" in the period between July 1 and the end of September. While Android's leading position looks "unassailable," it does face challenges in a market filled with phones made by hundreds manufacturers, few of which turn a profit. That's not helped by Google's new Pixel phone, which competes against the companies that made it popular in the first place, Strategy Analytics said. About 375 million smartphones shipped in the third quarter of 2016, up 6 percent from 354.2 million units in the same period last year. Shipments of Android-based phones rose 10.3 percent, while Apple's iPhones fell 5.2 percent.

Comments

And nearly 10 of 10 android phones are on old ...

[postmortem]

version today
https://developer.android.com/...

well no joke

[whoozwah]

1 out of the multitude smartphone manufacturers ships with iOS.

Re:Figures for Active Devices

[Anonymous Coward]

My iPhone 3GS is used by one of the kids as an iPod, the wireless doesn't work anymore, but it plays music fine.

The 4S is still working just fine, so is my 5S (wife uses that now) and I have the SE.

Re:The choice

[TuballoyThunder]

The answer is obviously yes as Apple has about 12% of the market and is number two behind Samsung. Apple takes about 70% of the profit.

Apple has been losing share and profit, which I think is due to expansion in the lower price segment of the market and the improved quality of Android based phones. I would argue that the "open source, changeable, free (do you mean as in beer or as in speech)" are not factors that most people care about. I think the majority of the smartphone users care about price and usability.

Re:And nearly 10 of 10 android phones are on old .

[AmiMoJo]

If only it mattered, you would have a point.

Seriously, my two year old OnePlus One is on Marshmallow, a version behind the latest Nougat, or two if you want to count the recent 7.1 update. It doesn't matter, I still get security updates, it still runs every app I throw at it. There are a few new features in Nougat but actually a lot of the important stuff is part of the Google Launcher so runs on my phone anyway.

The phone is better than the day I bought it, secure and I'd rather it remains that way instead of getting updates that eventually cripple it or change functionality in annoying ways. If/when Nougat is available I'll evaluate it, but I'm not obsessed with being on the latest version and usually wait a month before installing updates for safety anyway.