Android loses 8% of its global OS market share in five years

Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS dominate the smartphone operating system (OS) space. Today 7 out of 10 phones run on the Android OS, while two of the remaining three are most likely to be iOS powered. Occasionally, one out of those three will be using one of the other less known OS’. However, Android’s dominance is coming under increasing pressure from the other players if we go by market data.

StockApps.com has provided data showing Android’s global dominance of the OS space has been ebbing gradually. Its worldwide market share in January 2022 stood at 69.74%. In contrast, the OS commanded a market share of 77.32%, its highest ever, in July 2018. Thus it has ceded 7.58% of its holding in the last five years.

Why is Android’s market share declining?

So what’s behind this even erosion of Android’s command of the OS Market? StockApps.com’s finance expert Edith Reads has been tracking the trends in the sector. She attributes Android losing its ground to increased competition within the space.

Here’s her weighing in on the situation. ” Android’s loss of market share boils down to heightened competition within the OS space. A look at the data shows that  iOS gained 6% between July 2018 and January 2022. From 19.4% then, Apple has grown its OS market share to 25.49%. Other small scale OS developers account for the remaining 1.58% that Google shed.”

That said, Edith doesn’t think that Android’s command is under threat. She says Android’s open-source nature and affordability have endeared it to the masses across the globe. She adds that Google has built an unassailable gap and that it’ll take something extraordinary for Apple and the rest to overturn it.

OS dominance and geography

Available data shows that the OS’ dominance is geographic. For instance, 84% of all smartphones in Africa are android-based. iOS accounts for roughly 14% of the continent’s devices, while Samsung, Nokia, and KaiOS share the remaining two percent or so.

A similar situation obtains in Europe, where Android OS has a market share of 69.32%. iOS registers better prospects here than it does in Africa, as it runs 30% of all the phones here. Again Samsung, Nokia and other developers have to contend with a miserly 1% of the market.

The Asian and South American continents have Android dominating at 81 and 90 percent, respectively. iOS share here is 18% in Asia and 10% in South America. Other OS developers share less than one percent of the phone market on both continents.

It’s a close-fought battle between iOS and Android in N.America and Oceania though the former edges it. IOS commands 54% of the market in both regions, while Android takes nearly 45%.  Again the other developers share the remaining one percent.