14 DAY TRIAL // There's an old rumor in town claiming that Android is the world's leading mobile operating system with as astonishing market share. Ask your mother, ask your grandfather, or ask anyone you want (without solid expertise in the mobile field, of course), and pretty much everyone will tell you the same thing: Android is number one with approximately 80 percent of the market.
And this is undoubtedly true. Although its market share is clearly smaller than 80 percent, at least global-wise, Android leads the world's mobile OS battle in almost every country in the world.
But then there's the other side of the story. Say you're a developer and you want to build an app, but you do not afford to code for both iOS and Android, which would obviously allow you to tackle the majority of mobile phone users across the world because these two are currently the most used on the planet.
You have to choose just one, and you have to do it wisely because this is the app that's supposed to help you make money out of it before eventually launching it on the other platform.
Basically, your answer is in the number of users who are currently running the latest versions of each platform and not in the market share overall. While Android has, let's say, 70 percent of the mobile world, not all are actually running the latest versions and could buy your app. Some are still running Android 2.3, as weird as that might sound, and unless they're on 5.0 or 5.1, it's basically impossible to hope that you could actually make money out of an app.
So that's what we're trying to do today: calculate how many users of each platform are actually using which operating system with the latest version to determine the one that would help you target a bigger audience from the very beginning.
It's hard to get accurate statistics from just one source, and that's why we decided to get numbers from three different researchers. This way, we should have a closer look at the results and determine the better platform (spoiler alert: the outcome will be the same in every case). It's worth mentioning from the very beginning that all are using ad impressions to estimate market shares, so although their analyses might not be 100 percent accurate, they certainly get pretty close to that.
Before anything, here are the official stats provided by Google for its Android platform:
| Android version | Share (in %) |
|---|---|
| 4.4 | 38.9 |
| 5.0 | 15.6 |
| 5.1 | 7.9 |
| Older | 37.6 |
And here are the stats provided by Apple for iOS:
| iOS version | Share (in %) |
|---|---|
| iOS 8 | 30 |
| iOS 9 | 61 |
| Older | 9 |
In other words, 91 percent of devices are already on iOS 8 and 9, while the other 9 percent are using an older version of the operating system. Again this means that 91 percent of the market shares below could be targeted by your app if you code for iOS.
Note: Both Google and Apple estimated these adoption figures based on data collected from devices connecting to the Play store and App Store, respectively. Google generated this report on October 5, while Apple did the same on October 19.
iOS 8 was released by Apple on September 17, 2014. Android 5.0 debuted on November 12, 2014, so they arrived on the market at about the same time, with an approximately two-month delay.
StatCounter: Android - 66.77%, iOS - 18.14%
According to StatCounter, Android currently holds a market share of 66.77 percent, while iOS is the second most-used mobile operating system worldwide with 18.14 percent.
While detailed statistics for each version that would allow us to determine how many users are actually running the latest release for the two platforms (and that could help us estimate which would be the better one for coding in order to target a bigger audience) might vary to a certain extent, simple math leads us to the following:
| Platform | Total market share (in %) | Latest version (in %) |
|---|---|---|
| Android | 66.77 | 15.6 |
| iOS | 18.14 | 16.5 |
NetMarketShare: Android - 53.54%, iOS - 38.58%
In the case of statistics provided by NetMarkShare, Android is once again the leading platform with 53.54 percent, with iOS the runner-up with 38.58 percent.
The very same operations lead to us the following figures:
| Platform | Total market share (in %) | Latest version (in %) |
|---|---|---|
| Android | 53.54 | 12.5 |
| iOS | 38.58 | 35.1 |
IDC (estimates): Android - 81.1%, iOS - 15.6%
IDC is currently a leading market researcher, and their estimates for the year 2015 pretty much speak for themselves: Android is set to top market share rankings with 81.1 percent, while iOS is likely to come second with 15.6 percent.
This should provide us with the following results:
| Platform | Total market share (in %) | Latest version (in %) |
|---|---|---|
| Android | 81.1 | 19 |
| iOS | 15.6 | 14.1 |
Ending note
Overall, if you're a start-up that's trying to choose just a platform for your app, iOS is by far the better option. The number of users that are currently on the latest version of iOS is clearly bigger than that of people on Android, which shows that there's a bigger opportunity to sell more if you decide to go in this direction.
The same has happened in the last few months, when most iPhone owners have rapidly migrated to the latest version of iOS, as compared to Android users, who have decided to stick to their current install for a little longer. Partially to blame is the gradual rollout of new Android versions, while Apple's strategy to release iOS updates to all users at the same time has paid off.
Statista claims there are 4.88 billion mobile users worldwide, and no matter which market researcher you choose to believe, there still are more on iOS 8 + 9 than on Android 5.0 + 5.1 (in StatCounter's case, for instance, iOS leads Android with 792 million / 748 million).
Before jumping into the comments section to show your rage, keep in mind that, yes, we do know that the stats provided by market researchers aren't accurate, but that's why we decided to go for three different names. In each case, however, the results are pretty much the same, and although Android has the bigger market share overall, the number of users that matter is smaller than iOS' every time.
In the end, it's no wonder that some devs decide to concentrate more on iOS from the very beginning (Porsche, for instance, is one good example because the German car maker has its own Car Connect app that exists both on iOS and Android, but the latter hasn't received any updates since 2014; the iOS version has got three updates in the last 12 months, and keep in mind that Car Connect is only available with a subscription).
The same in the case of Waze, an app that's actually owned by Google and that is now at version 4 on iOS, but yet to bring the latest release on Android. And examples can continue with other apps, including Periscope and Alien Blue, two apps that are still exclusive to iOS.
So go over to the comment box after the jump and let us know what device you are currently using and which version of the OS is running on it.