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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.

16 of 220 comments (clear)

  1. And nearly 10 of 10 android phones are on old ... by postmortem · · Score: 4, Informative
  2. Re:Unlikely by duke_cheetah2003 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    People that think they matter use iPhones. Period.

    Fixed that for ya.

  3. Some Observations by youngone · · Score: 4, Interesting
    I have a work iPhone 6 and a personal Samsung Galaxy S4. The Samsung is 3 years old and works fine. If I was to sell it second hand I might get $50 for it. The iPhone would sell for at least $500 (local dollars, not US).

    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.

  4. well no joke by whoozwah · · Score: 5, Informative

    1 out of the multitude smartphone manufacturers ships with iOS.

  5. Awesome... by r_naked · · Score: 3, Interesting

    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.

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  6. Re:Dumbphones replaced by smartphones by gmack · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I don't know why you put smartphone in quotes. My current smartphone cost me $150 USD for an octo core CPU and 3 GB ram/ dual SIMs etc. That's deep into the smartphone category and just as capable as a far more expensive phone.

  7. Re:The choice by TuballoyThunder · · Score: 5, Informative

    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.

  8. Re:The choice by JaredOfEuropa · · Score: 5, Insightful

    iPhone: works great if it does what you need it to do out of the box, which it does for many people. If it doesn't, it sucks.
    Android: works great if you choose the right device, vendor (and even service provider), and spend some time tweaking it. If you don't, it sucks.

    The iPhone works well for me, if I can't see the walls around the garden I don't care about them, and I don't want to have to tweak my phone (install 3rd party tools or remove crapware) to make it work well. I hate my stock Android device (that I use for work) with a passion, but that's just me.

    One thing though: I start bumping into those Apple walls more and more often, and so do other ordinary people. For example: speech recognition, which is incredibly useful in certain applications like home automation, and something that people want. App developers have been able to hook into Google's speech stuff for donkeys years now, but on iOS Apple only recently announced the eagerly awaited 3rd party access to the Siri API... which turns out to be exceedingly clunky and limited to only 6 domains: ride booking, online payments, messaging, that sort of thing. No home automation, not yet and probably not ever because Apple have their own HA offering: HomeKit. Which is still very much in its infancy and not very good even in basic setups, because it doesn't play nice with other kit. More walls... That's something that Apple need to be careful about; if this happens once too often, people will switch.

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  9. note 7 joke by Mishotaki · · Score: 4, Funny

    off course, you ship your note 7 to the customer and back.... twice in the same year, so every note was counted 4 times, it kinda helps...

  10. Meanwhile behind the Apple RDF... by Jason1729 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Over in the Apple forum they're saying iOS and Android are both doing well with a combined 99% market share.

  11. Selling at a loss by Guspaz · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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?

  12. Re:Unlikely by flopsquad · · Score: 5, Funny

    "Nearly 9 Out of 10 Smartphones Shipped Run On Android"

    And only 3 out of 10 of them experience unwanted explosions!

    See that's trolling for a funny.

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  13. Re:Unlikely by dillee1 · · Score: 4, Funny

    You mean the other 7 are wanted?

  14. Re:The choice by bloodhawk · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Let's see, I can choose between:

    iPhone: Proprietary, unchangeable, walled garden, one vendor, one device.

    Android: Open source, changeable, free, many vendors, many devices.

    Is this even a choice?

    I use a Samsung Galaxy S7. I don't think ANY of your options are reasons for the majority of consumers. They care about price, features and interacting with their friends with another smaller (but highly lucrative target group) caring about fashion and trend. The people that give a shit about the proprietry/open source/walled garden etc stuff is so insignificant that I don't think either side intentionally targets them.

  15. Re:Unlikely by Dutch+Gun · · Score: 3, Interesting

    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.

    --
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  16. Re:And nearly 10 of 10 android phones are on old . by AmiMoJo · · Score: 3, Informative

    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.

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