Latest research from Kantar Worldpanel ComTech on smartphone operating systems reveals that Android continues to make year-on-year gains in Great Britain (which excludes Northern Ireland), Germany, France, Italy and Spain.
For the three months ending February 2016, Android accounted for 74.3 per cent of the top five EU markets as of the end of February, rising 6.7 percentage points year on year. The share of Apple iOS smartphones fell marginally by 1.8 percentage points to 19.1 per cent, while Windows dropped 4.2 percentage points to 5.9 per cent.
However, the picture was very mixed at national level, according to Dominic Sunnebo, business unit director at Kantar Worldpanel ComTech Europe.
"Performance varied considerably by market, underlining the impact that Huawei and local vendors are making in some markets," Sunnebo observed.
He noted that 42 per cent of the smartphone market in Great Britain falls into the premium category, with users not yet tempted by some of the premium devices offered by Huawei, for example.
"Android will be counting on Samsung's new flagship devices to challenge Apple's dominance," Sunnebo said.
In Great Britain, Android's share increased by just 2.3 percentage points to 55.5 per cent, while iOS declined by 0.1 percentage points to 37.8 per cent. Among the top five EU markets, Spain had the highest Android market share at 90 per cent.
Elsewhere in the world, Android also increased its market share in urban China to 76.4 per cent from 73 per cent year-on-year.
For the first time since August 2014 iOS was not able to expand its market share in urban China, where instead it declined by 3.2 percentage points to 22.2 per cent between February 2015 and February 2016.
However, Kantar noted that the arrival of the lower-priced iPhone SE may enable some Chinese buyers to take their first step into the Apple ecosystem.
For more:
- see the Kantar Worldpanel ComTech report
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