Android vs. iOS – iOS still on top

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Recent surveys indicate that Apple still leads iOS in all aspects except volume.

  • Recent work by Flurry shows that while Android is now the runaway volume leader in the mobile ecosystem race, it still lags when it comes to usage.
  • Market leadership has swapped back and forth over the course of 2012 but it is now firmly in Android’s hands and shows no signs of changing again any time soon.
  • When one adds smartphones (where Android is the runaway leader) and tablets where iOS utterly dominates one finds that Android now has 53% market share and rising.
  • Other smartphone OSs are, for the moment, remain a rounding error.
  • However, when one looks into app. usage another story emerges.
  • Total usage (sum of all app usage on all devices) shows that Android, which almost reached iOS levels a year ago, is now at 80% of iOS and falling.
  • This data fits with less recent data that shows that Android devices at the same price point are generate less traffic than iOS devices although this gap has been closing.
  • I see a number of reasons for this:
    • Demographics. Android devices are purchased by much less affluent users. Hence they have less money to spend on apps and therefore would in all likelihood spend less time using them.
    • Despite this, I am surprised to see Android’s share declining as it is gaining in terms of users and therefore I would have expected total usage should be rising more quickly than it is.
    • What this is pointing to is that new users are very low end and use apps so infrequently, that they are causing total usage to grow far slower than units.
    • Poor usability. Android scores badly on Radio Free Mobile’s Three Laws of Robotics analysis (www.radiofreemobile.com/research). The experience is tricky and frustrating to use and set up and app discovery and use still far lags that of OS or even Windows Phone. 
    • I believe that this is a major factor inhibiting usage and is by far Android’s greatest weakness when it comes to potential market share loss.
    • Fragmentation. Android is very fragmented. So fragmented in fact that I estimate that only 32% of Android devices are really capable of delivering a decent Google experience.
    • With the growth increasingly in the very low-end and in emerging markets, this trend is unlikely to change much going forward.
  • This further underpins my view that Android looks very vulnerable.
  •  When first time users come to select another handset, all the data I have seen convinces me that they will be open to considering something else as long as it comes at the same price point.
  • Here Windows Phone or a mid-range iOS device have scope to take share from Android as their ecosystems score much better when it comes to ease of use and user delight.
  • Microsoft, Nokia and Yahoo! remain the companies with most scope to surprise on the upside and are were I would look to get involved when investing in the mobile ecosystem race. 

RICHARD WINDSOR

Richard is founder, owner of research company, Radio Free Mobile. He has 16 years of experience working in sell side equity research. During his 11 year tenure at Nomura Securities, he focused on the equity coverage of the Global Technology sector.

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[…] Richard Windsor on Radio Free Mobile, who usually thinks Android is crap when it comes to the user experience, had this to say about the comparison of Android to iOS: […]