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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.
The old Samsung does everything the iPhone does. I noticed the Apple marketing for the iPhone 7 recently, and the things the iPhone 7 camera can do I have been able to do on my Samsung for the last three years. (Not that I do, they're mostly gimmicks).
All of my wife's friends were Apple users until the last 12 months or so, now my wife is the last iPhone user in her group of friends. That's hardly a scientific poll or anything, but white, relatively wealthy middle class women used to be the core iPhone buyer.
Just my two cents worth really, make of it what you will.
Market up 6%, iPhone down 5.2% = same people buying iPhones. Bottom of the market is swapping out really cheap dumbphones with almost as cheap Android "smartphones", but usually all the smart bits are very poor. A quick check at my local price check shows the cheapest Android phones sell for 1/5th of the price of the cheapest iPhone. It's like the market for $100,000 cars vs $20,000 cars, no wonder new buyers are in the $20k market. By itself that's no reason Apple should worry, Android got the volume and Apple the big spenders.
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
So we ended up with the MS of the mobile world. Don't get me wrong, I use an Android phone, and I think things are OK right now, but if Google decided to become a super dick -- the battle starts all over again.
I think my next phone will run Ubuntu.
-- http://anonet.org -- The internet the way it was meant to be. Check it out, you may be surprised.
Samsung was the only Android handheld manufacturer making any actual profit (not a loss or breaking even), and the billions upon billions of dollars of costs for the Note 7 issues have wiped out years worth of profit for the things. That means that at this point, Apple is the only company actually making any significant profit in the industry.
So, is it really so bad to only have 12% of the market when you're the only ones making any money?
Nearly everyone I know owns an iPhone.
That's because you probably work in the US, amid middle class or higher folks income-wise. Just in the US alone, iPhones account for 40% of smartphones. By the time you factor in your income and job, it's likely a much higher percentage.
And it's not just poor people that buy Android phones, of course. I bought a rather expensive HTC One (m7) Android phone as my first smart phone, and still enjoy using it. At the time, I didn't own any Apple products, and saw no reason to jump into their ecosystem. On the other hand, I already had a gmail account for my personal mail. I figured if nothing else, an Android phone was guaranteed to work well with that. Plus, of course, I figured I'd have a bit more control over my phone with Android. Of course, that was before I realized Verizon sent me a phone with apps that I couldn't uninstall. Doh. Well, at least I can still load unauthorized apps if I want to.
My next phone may be an iPhone simply to round out my personal development platforms. Alternatively, it may be a Pixel, expensive as it is, simply because I'm sick of carriers pushing their shit that I don't want on my phone (unwanted apps), and NOT pushing the shit I actually DO want (security updates). I haven't quite decided yet.
Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.