Android winning smartphone OS war

Kantar Worldpanel has released a new market analysis report on the smartphone market in different regions of the world. The data shows Android is winning heavily in a lot of areas and is maintaining and even still growing in some, while others take hits in various regions and only gain a few percentage points in others.

Starting in Germany, it looks like Android is far and away the most preferred OS available. 75 percent of users are running an Android device and that went up 2.3 percent in the past month, while Apple’s iOS dropped to 15 percent, Windows Phone sat at 6.6 percent, and both BlackBerry and other platforms were unnoticeable.

The United States is a more open playing field. Android only has a 51 percent hold of the region, with iOS taking 41 percent of the market. This is very impressive considering iOS has one smartphone, the iPhone, while Android is supported by hundreds of smartphones from different providers.

Great Britain offers the same sort of competitive playing field, but iOS only holds 28 percent. Windows Phone and BlackBerry are both more well liked in GB than the U.S., holding 8.6 and 5.5 percent of the market respectively.

China is a repeat of Germany, with a low 70 percent of the smartphone market going to Android, iOS taking a little more ground, and both Windows Phone and BlackBerry completely deserted. Considering most of the core Chinese companies run Android devices, we can see why Android is so well liked in the region.

France and Australia are very similar, both with around 65 percent of users running Android, although France has more people on Windows Phone and other platforms, while Australia has more iOS users. The Windows Phone fanbase is located mostly in the EU.

Italy is an interesting region. iOS is about to get beat by Windows Phone in the area, with 16 percent for iOS and 10.5 percent for Windows Phone. This is the largest market share Windows Phone has in any region across the world and shows Microsoft’s appeal in Italy.

Japan is another very interesting region, unlike all the others the country has more iOS users than Android at 49 percent to 44 percent respectively. This is odd considering Apple has not specialized in Japanese audiences when making the iPhone, but Apple has always had a loyal fanbase in the country.

Spain is far and away the biggest Android fan with 92 percent of the market installed on the open source OS. Apple sits at a resoundingly small 4.8 percent of the market, with Windows Phone at 1.7 percent.