Since swapping my iPhone in for an Android phone, I’ve found myself playing catchup on much of the Android culture. I’ll save my comparisons of the two general platforms for another post, but the obvious and plentiful differences got me wondering just how many Americans use an iOS device versus Android. It turns out that this question is more complex than I had anticipated.
There are a number of reports available that summarize mobile-related statistics throughout 2013. The reports I reviewed came from Pew and Comscore and each looked at a little different aspect of mobile ownership/adoption/saturation. It’s hard to throw a stone and not hit some sort of online commentary on which platform has more users, or how many people own smart phones. What I didn’t consider is while it is somewhat straightforward to collect data on how many people are using smart phones, it is harder to track platform adoption. The two big contenders are iOS and Android, but it turns out there are a number of devices that don’t connect to data networks (only wifi) and some of those don’t connect directly to networks at all. All of this really drove home the importance of understanding the scope of reports summarizing mobile data. It is easy to cherry-pick findings (as with many types of reports).
Based on the information I reviewed from Pew and Comscore, I developed the following infographic as an attempt to make the information even easier to understand. Unfortunately, the information isn’t useful to understanding data for Alaska only, but it is valuable to have a sense of what is happening nationally.
Sources:
- https://pewinternet.org/Reports/2013/Smartphone-Ownership-2013/Findings.aspx
- https://www.comscore.com/Insights/Blog/2013_Digital_Future_in_Focus_Series
- https://www.comscore.com/Insights/Blog/The_Multi-Platform_Majority_How_Mobile_is_Changing_the_Way_We_Experience_the_Web
- www.comscore.com/Insights/Presentations_and_Whitepapers/2013/comScore_and_MMA_Mobile_Barometer_Q3_2013
- https://www.comscore.com/Insights/Press_Releases/2013/11/comScore_Reports_September_2013_U.S._Smartphone_Subscriber_Market_Share
Great infographic, which has really made your information easy to understand.
It clearly shows that 90% people use smartphones out of which the ratio of Android is higher.
This research was done on Dec 2013 and I am sure now in April 2014, the ratio of Android must have increased much higher compared to iOS.
Thanks for this informative share.
I might be wrong but my general perception is Android has more flexibility and advancement as compared with Apple iOS or Windows Based Mobiles, Like iPhone Does not allow us to download unsupported formats, programs etc. and I also see much more apps for android sets as compare to Apple Market, like to know ur thoughts over it, my rough estimation are Android has far brighter future as compared to any other Operating system.
Well, if the current trend progresses, I think Android will continue to garner more of the marketshare of smartphone users. The easiest way to know at this point is to check the latest numbers from Comscore and Pew research. Enough time has passed there should be new numbers published.
What’s interesting is that depending on the numbers one looks at, Android may not be making that assumed progress – as numbers from this Mobile Lens study indicate, https://www.comscore.com/Insights/Press_Releases/2013/3/comScore_Reports_January_2013_U.S._Smartphone_Subscriber_Market_Share