We last touched base on smartphone mobile operating systems market shares in October 2011. In the previous research Android was the only OS, in the top six operating systems, gaining market share. To discover what has happened over the past year we needed another research of the top mobile operating systems on the market. Through our five month research from April to August 2012 sample of nearly 76.5 million mobile transactions from Scandinavian mobile services we aimed to find out.
The following table reveals the current positions of the top 10 smartphone operating systems as of August 2012. The four months prior to August 2012 express the recent changes in share percentages. For comparison, we have added September 2011 market share percentages for the mobile platforms from our previous study. Non-applicable (NA) indicates the platforms that were not included in the 2011 research either because of low market percentages or because the platform had not be released into the market at that time.
Table 1. Mobile Operating System Market Share Percentages from Scandinavian Mobile Browsing Services from April to August in 2012 with September 2011 reference percentages from previous research (Source: CEM4Mobile Solutions Ltd. 2012)
Platform April 2012 May 2012 June 2012 July 2012 August 2012 Sept.2011
Apple iOS 45.2% 45.6% 44.2% 42.2% 43.5% 33% Android 30.5% 31.6% 32.7% 34.9% 35.6% 28% Symbian OS 15.4% 14.1% 13.7% 13.1% 11.4% 29% Windows Phone 2.9% 3.1% 4.0% 4.7% 4.9% NA Nokia OS 2.6% 2.4% 2.3% 2.1% 2.0% 5% MeeGo 0.8% 0.8% 0.8% 0.8% 0.8% NA Samsung OS 0.8% 0.7% 0.7% 0.6% 0.6% 1% SonyEricsson OS 0.6% 0.5% 0.5% 0.4% 0.4% 2% Blackberry OS 0.5% 0.5% 0.5% 0.4% 0.4% NA Maemo 0.1% 0.1% 0.1% 0.1% 0.1% NA
The table shows that, Apple iOS has maintained the majority of market share but is fluctuating month by month. Android is the second most popular and showing steady growth. Symbian has dropped to third and continues to lose ground. In fourth place there is the Windows Phone, which has nearly 5% market share and is seeing growth on a monthly basis. A graphical depiction of the values from Table 1, minus the September 2011 figures, can be seen below (see Figure1).
Figure1. Smartphone mobile operating systems market share shown on a monthly basis from April of 2012 to August of 2012 (Source: CEM4Mobile Solutions Ltd. 2012)
Continuing the analysis, we look at the changes in market share over the five month research. The following Table reveals the market share change percentage by operating system. Positive percentages show growth and negative percentages show loss in market share over the given time period.
Table 2. Mobile Operating System Market Share Change Percentage April-August 2012 (Source: CEM4Mobile Solutions Ltd. 2012)
Platform % Change
Android 5.03% Windows Phone 2.01% MeeGo 0.02% Maemo -0.02% Bada -0.07% BlackBerry OS -0.11% SonyEricsson OS -0.19% Samsung OS -0.20% Nokia OS -0.69% Apple iOS -1.65% Symbian OS -4.02%
Interestingly, from the market share change percentage above Android is again showing the strongest growth. However, even with such a high growth figure Android still remains second on overall market share. Looking at iOS from the 2011 figures it has managed to increase its market share 10.5%. However in the current research iOS growth has ceased and it is fighting to maintain its current market share. It still remains to be seen if iPhone 5 will place Apple back among the growing platforms. For now it seems that iOS and Android will continue the fight for pole position.
As an honorable mention, Windows Phone has entered the playing field late in the game, obtained nearly 5% market share in less than a year and is showing 2.01% growth. The market share and growth rate percentages are positive signs for the future of Windows Phone. However, if Windows Phone wishes to be the third major platform it will need to show much stronger growth. In our current research Android is growing 2.5 times faster than Windows Phone and both Android and iOS market share percentages are on average eight times greater; leaving a huge gap for Windows Phone to close before it can become a major player.
