iOS Vs Android A Battle That's Far From Over

Two Operating system each with unique strengths.

- Benjamin Kerry & Gavin Lenaghan

CONTRADICTORY STATISTICS INDICATE EXTENT OF RIVALRY

Two reports recently emerged shedding some light on not only how tight the competition continues to be between the operating systems of iOS and Android, but also how dramatically Apple and Google differ in their mobile strategies. For, while 2016’s third quarter saw Android’s share of the smartphone market reach nearly 88%, it also saw Apple’s iPhone line take over 100% of the market’s profits.

ANDROID: A LEADER, BUT A HOLLOW ONE

Fresh data from Strategy Analytics could have led many observers to believe that Android has pretty much sewn up the smartphone market. After all, the data revealed that Android was on a mammoth 87.5% of smartphones shipped during the just-gone quarter; that compared to the 12.1% share that Apple’s iOS took in the same period.

Indeed, Woody Oh, Director at Strategy Analytics, unsurprisingly remarked that Android’s lead “looks unassailable”, adding that the system’s “low-cost services and user-friendly software remain attractive to hardware makers, operators and consumers worldwide.” However, the true picture of the smartphone market is a lot more complex than these figures alone would suggest. What company is making most of the profits in this sector?

The answer is, by an amazingly long chalk, Apple. Analysts at BMO Capital Markets have estimated that, during that same quarter, Apple captured 103.6% of those profits. While Samsung had the second highest slice of profits, the failure and withdrawal of the explosion prone Galaxy Note 7 meant that the South Korean giant’s share was a mere 0.9% this time around. Most smartphone vendors actually lost money on smartphones, which explains why Apple’s share was able to exceed 100%.