Android continues to poach away market share from the iPhone and other mobile platforms, now accounting for 25 percent of mobile operating systems in North America. That’s a 2 percent increase, month-over-month, and an 18.6 percent increase year-over-year.
The latest study in Android’s takeover comes from web metrics firm Quantcast, noting Android’s 17.2 percent representation of the global smartphone market. The growth of Android is notable in its own right, but it also signifies the platform’s encroachment on Apple’s iOS turf. Android is also staking its claim on BlackBerry’s market share, having overtaken RIM’s platform as the top-selling OS in the U.S., according to Gartner.
The myriad of partnerships and device support can account for a large portion of Android’s success, as its open-source diversity enables developers and manufacturers to create a wide range of devices and apps for Google’s mobile platform.
This is well-recognized in the IFA event, where several companies are revealing their Android-supported devices just before the holiday season. The Samsung GalaxyTab and Sony TV with Android app inclusion are just a couple of items we’ve seen during the first days of the conference.
Android’s expansion across devices has also been encouraging to the gaming market, with Spin3 and Microgaming teaming up to offer new platform options for the Android Market. All Slots Mobile Casino is the first client to launch a new title on Android, with more games emerging in the coming weeks.
themrwhite
Odd, other articles around the web suggest otherwise. Paid for by Google maybe? Hmmm
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9183298/Apple_s_iOS_beats_Android_6_1_on_the_Web
Computerworld - Apple's iOS mobile operating system is now the third-most popular platform on the Internet, with a share nearly six times larger than Android's, a Web measurement company said Wednesday.
Collectively the devices that run iOS -- the iPhone, the iPod Touch and the iPad -- accounted for 1.1% of all hardware on the Internet last month, more than enough to shove Linux off its perch as the third-place operating system on the Web.
For the month of August, Linux fell to a 0.85% share, the third month in a row that the open-source operating system lost ground. Windows and Apple's Mac OS were the No. 1 and No. 2 operating systems on the Web, with 91.3% and 5%, respectively.
"It's something to take note of when a mobile operating system passes something that's been around forever," said Vince Vizzaccaro, a Net Applications vice president, talking about iOS overtaking Linux. "Mobile's growth curve is strong, and mobile is becoming quite a phenomenon on the Internet."
Net Applications' numbers don't reflect devices sold or operating systems licensed or installed, but they do show how much browsing people do using specific hardware and operating systems. And clearly, mobile users take to the Web.
"When you combine all the different devices, mobile has a 2.6% share," said Vizzaccaro. "That's massive when you think about it."
As a platform, iOS has the biggest chunk of the total mobile usage share, easily beating rivals like Google's Android and Nokia's Symbian.
Android devices made up just 0.2% of the operating systems that powered browsers Net Applications tracked last month. "Whatever the sales are, we're seeing iOS totally dominate the market on the Web," Vizzaccaro said. "iOS has nearly a 6:1 advantage over Android."