One subject that is sure to divide many smartphone users is the preference between Android and iOS platforms and many are fiercely loyal to one operating system or the other. Therefore figures of how those platforms are doing in the market are often interesting and today we have news that for the US smartphone marketplace, although the Android platform is still at the top, its share fell in April while Apple’s iOS share saw a slight increase.
Apple made steady slow progress throughout April continuing an upward pace while Android dipped over the same period according to the latest comScore study using MobiLens data. This involved 30,000 mobile users and in the three months to April, Android gained 2.2 points to end up with a market share of 50.8%. However although there was a gain for the overall period there was actually a month-by-month decline as its market share at the end of March had been 51% after previously rising 3.7%.
In the same three-month period to the end of April, Apple rose by 1.9% and is now on a 31.4% share of the market with the iPhone going up slightly by 0.7 points in April. The only other of the top five mobile platforms to increase its marketshare in April was Windows Phone with help from Nokia, which rose 0.1 points, according to Apple Insider. Meanwhile unsurprisingly Symbian fell by 0.1% and RIM, for whom things are looking pretty grim at the moment, dropped by 0.7%.
Since January there has also been a 6-point rise in the numbers of people who own smartphones and at the end of April those amounted to more than 107 million. Downloaded app usage was also up by 1.6% in the three months to the end of April while over the same period there was a slight rise of 0.5% in mobile browser usage. Texting fell by 0.5%.
Intriguing stuff then and although the shifts in this latest survey are slight it’s difficult to know if they will become more significant. One thing for sure is that with the Android Samsung Galaxy S3 just out and coming to the US later this month and also Apple’s iPhone 5 due for release in the coming months, there could be some real changes in the next survey results.
Are you an Android enthusiast or a loyal Apple iOS fan? Do you think the Galaxy S3 or iPhone 5 will make any major differences to the current trends in US smartphone market share? Let us know with your comments.