Even though Android captured an impressive 75% of all smartphone sales in the 3rd quarter, a new analysis shows that it’s growth is slowing down over the past six months while iOS is still making healthy gains.
Respectable independent analyst Horace Dediu took the latest comScore data to chart the two platform’s growth. He discovered a recent split of 23.5 million for Android and 17 million units for iOS as Google’s platform gained 58 percent of the growth and Apple captured 42 percent. That’s a notable change in spread in Apple’s favor versus the 24-month period when Android captured 70 percent of the growth and iOS captured 30 percent of the growth…
According to the analysis, Android is slowing over the past six months while iOS continues to gain. Dediu explains the late smartphone adopter paradox:
Therefore, paradoxically, the late market shows that the prospect for iOS growth seems strong. Furthermore, as we do reach saturation, perhaps in another three years, the secular growth may end in the US but the loyalty of iOS usage may give iOS another advantage in a market where growth is determined by platform churn.
Overall, Apple cannot really expect to compete with Android in unit sales, simply because the Google platform is found on a huge amount of carriers, form factors and price points.
Between the two platforms they currently, and should continue to, hold the major share of the smartphone market.
