While smartphones continue to become more mainstream, the battle between iOS and Android to be the dominant platform is as ferocious as ever. According to the latest data from comScore, however, Android growth has hit a 3-year low, leaving the iPhone with the perfect opportunity to catch up.
Analyzing the comScore data, Asymco analyst Horace Dediu notes:
The concern has to be that rather than seeing the net adds growing — as they have for two years with only two contiguous months of decline — Android net adds have been falling for four months.
Android has been growing steadily since its introduction, making this 4-month lull in growth an all-time low for the platform. It’s also interesting that these numbers only factor in the iPhone – and considering that the iPad has been dominating the tablet market for some time, adding the iPad into these figures would show even more impressive growth patterns for Apple (and likely even more decline for Android).
Much of Android’s growth has been due to the availability of inexpensive Android-based phones – now that Apple has two very affordable options in the iPhone 4 and 3GS, it’s hardly surprising that the game has shifted in their favor.
