Android Overtakes iOS in Usage Stats For The First Time

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According to these statistics, between September 2013 and July of 2014, Android slowly overtook iOS in usage stats.

The latest data from Net Applications show that smartphones and tablets powered by Android were used more than iPhones, iPads, and iPod touches powered by iOS this July. While iOS usage dipped from 45.61% in June to 44.19%, Android’s increased from 43.75% to 44.62%.
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I was always amazed that a single company like Apple could have such a high percentage of web traffic.

But are we supposed to be equally amazed that 50+ companies combined with over a billion devices in the world can create that much traffic?
 
Not surprising.
Android’s market share continues to grow, while Apple is stagnant or losing market share.

More interesting is that IOS traffic is down almost 10% from last year, while Android has grown by 15%.
Also Windows phone traffic has more than doubled in the past year, although it's still low.
 
android only has usage stat issues when there is several different version of the OS developers have to target but most simply don't have the time and money write three versions of an app, and test it on fifty devices and know people will still complain when it does not work on their five year old device... iOS basically uses the same OS and does not make major enough changes to require a different version of the app to run. Personally I'd rather have the tweaks and updates. Apple was only king while Jobs was around to blown snow in people's faces. They still have a ton of money so in theory if they simply leveraged it they could have a better product but less profit that will never happen.
 
drakken said:
Personally I'd rather have the tweaks and updates. Apple was only king while Jobs was around to blown snow in people's faces. They still have a ton of money so in theory if they simply leveraged it they could have a better product but less profit that will never happen.
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Is that why they increased research and development 39% this year to nearly $4 billion?

As for "I'd rather have tweaks and updates", IOS phones going back 4 generations can get the latest version of IOS. You're lucky if a low to mid range Android phone even comes with the current version of Android, never mind future updates.
 
GlowingGhoul said:
Is that why they increased research and development 39% this year to nearly $4 billion?

As for "I'd rather have tweaks and updates", IOS phones going back 4 generations can get the latest version of IOS. You're lucky if a low to mid range Android phone even comes with the current version of Android, never mind future updates.
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So is that like the iphone 4s?
 
GlowingGhoul said:
Is that why they increased research and development 39% this year to nearly $4 billion?

As for "I'd rather have tweaks and updates", IOS phones going back 4 generations can get the latest version of IOS. You're lucky if a low to mid range Android phone even comes with the current version of Android, never mind future updates.
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Actually, it's three gens (iPhone 4, and from what I hear it runs like crap on it). On a well supported phone, you WILL get major OS updates on a phone 2 years back, and usually 3 if the phone is still fast enough.
 
PCunicorn said:
Actually, it's three gens (iPhone 4, and from what I hear it runs like crap on it). On a well supported phone, you WILL get major OS updates on a phone 2 years back, and usually 3 if the phone is still fast enough.
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Please give me the model name of a 3 year old Android phone that's gotten an upgrade to KitKat from the vendor.
 
See that little tick up in the Windows Phone share? That's when I picked up my Lumia 925. :)
 
I've always found it interesting that while Android devices have been outselling iOS for a long time now by quite a margin, iOS has still led the mobile usage statistics.

I guess that means that iPhone users are bigger phone whores! :p
 
GlowingGhoul said:
Is that why they increased research and development 39% this year to nearly $4 billion?

As for "I'd rather have tweaks and updates", IOS phones going back 4 generations can get the latest version of IOS. You're lucky if a low to mid range Android phone even comes with the current version of Android, never mind future updates.
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Didn't they stop updates for the first three generations of iPhone, I know certain functions for the 4, were not available for anything prior to it.
 
Zarathustra[H];1041004400 said:
I've always found it interesting that while Android devices have been outselling iOS for a long time now by quite a margin, iOS has still led the mobile usage statistics.

I guess that means that iPhone users are bigger phone whores! :p
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Even though I'd laugh and agree, there's an actual explanation behind the phenomena.

iPhones don't sell so well in developing nations. India generally can't afford $800 iPhones but they still buy plenty of $100 Android based phones. However, being India, they still have an insanely small data cap on their cellular service compared to countries that CAN easily buy iPhones.

And right there is the discrepancy in data usage by type of phone.
 
I had heard there was something about the way IOS fetched or prefetched pages that was actually being counted far more than actual hits. I thought this was long known but something heavily covered up. As said it makes little sense that 7x as many phones access web pages only the same amount.
 
rudy said:
I had heard there was something about the way IOS fetched or prefetched pages that was actually being counted far more than actual hits. I thought this was long known but something heavily covered up. As said it makes little sense that 7x as many phones access web pages only the same amount.
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It makes perfect sense when you consider how Android phones are sold--free with a 2 year contract to people who only use the phone and SMS functions. Thus their usage never shows up, because they aren't using smartphone features.

So, more people are using Android and not their phones that happen to run Android. That's good for Google. The question becomes where these users came from. The article presents it as a shift of iOS users to Android, but that doesn't make sense, because smartphone sales are increasing, not decreasing, annually. No one's usage should be decreasing.

I'm curious about the graph being labeled share and not usage.
 
Why do you say that, Do you know how an iPhone is sold? Guess how? Free with a 2 year contract for older models and newer higher end models you have to pay for which is exactly the same as higher end android phones. I don't understand the logic, how come every time this subject comes up some body says android phones are sold with 2 year contracts. lol seriously? That is how every major phone is sold from every major carrier.
 
rudy said:
Why do you say that, Do you know how an iPhone is sold? Guess how? Free with a 2 year contract for older models and newer higher end models you have to pay for which is exactly the same as higher end android phones. I don't understand the logic, how come every time this subject comes up some body says android phones are sold with 2 year contracts. lol seriously? That is how every major phone is sold from every major carrier.
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I think the idea being conveyed is that if you walk into a local carrier store you see 3 different iOS devices vs 18 different android devices. Out of those 3 iOS devices one is free, another starts at $99 and the other starts at $199. Whereas the 18 devices running android range with 3-4 $199+ devices and the rest are divided between free and say $100. So the thing here is that you attract more customers with the 18 choices vs the 3 choices.

On a daily basis your bound to see more droid activations then ios as your offered many different price points from prepaid to postpaid.
 
samm said:
I think the idea being conveyed is that if you walk into a local carrier store you see 3 different iOS devices vs 18 different android devices. Out of those 3 iOS devices one is free, another starts at $99 and the other starts at $199. Whereas the 18 devices running android range with 3-4 $199+ devices and the rest are divided between free and say $100. So the thing here is that you attract more customers with the 18 choices vs the 3 choices.

On a daily basis your bound to see more droid activations then ios as your offered many different price points from prepaid to postpaid.
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He didn't say anything like that.

Second if the choice is so important based on pure statistics then why is it that Samsung is taking the vast lions share of sales? Also what about the deal where the apple display is bigger and in a better location than anyone else in almost every store? You think customers are really attracted to the tiny off the side glass case with 10 phones jammed in it of which no one can understand the differences?
 
samm said:
I think the idea being conveyed is that if you walk into a local carrier store you see 3 different iOS devices vs 18 different android devices. Out of those 3 iOS devices one is free, another starts at $99 and the other starts at $199. Whereas the 18 devices running android range with 3-4 $199+ devices and the rest are divided between free and say $100. So the thing here is that you attract more customers with the 18 choices vs the 3 choices.

On a daily basis your bound to see more droid activations then ios as your offered many different price points from prepaid to postpaid.
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On top of that, there are plenty of Android phones that are sold cheaply with pre-paid card in store. Very attractive to many who want a cheap phone. This is where Android get the audience while iOS couldn't.
 
Not surprising since I now can confirm that the obnoxious Android fanboyism has now eclipsed what Apple fanboys have ever done.
 
nutzo said:
Also Windows phone traffic has more than doubled in the past year, although it's still low.
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Heh. All relative. If they sold 2 phones last year, and 4 phones this year, then it "doubled".

Windows Phone is never going to gain traction, its a vanity project moneypit for MS until they scrap fugly Metro 100% and reinvent a new UI from scratch.
 
DPI said:
Heh. All relative. If they sold 2 phones last year, and 4 phones this year, then it "doubled".

Windows Phone is never going to gain traction, its a vanity project moneypit for MS until they scrap fugly Metro 100% and reinvent a new UI from scratch.
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Windows Phone needs to focus on the Enterprise environment ... the consumer environment is lost to everybody but Apple and Samsung (they are the only companies who make a profit in the mobile arena) ... the Enterprise market is still up for grabs and MS could have an enormous advantage if they made their phone hyper friendly to integrate with the full range of Office and other MS products (which still dominate in the Enterprise world)
 
techrat said:
Even though I'd laugh and agree, there's an actual explanation behind the phenomena.

iPhones don't sell so well in developing nations. India generally can't afford $800 iPhones but they still buy plenty of $100 Android based phones. However, being India, they still have an insanely small data cap on their cellular service compared to countries that CAN easily buy iPhones.

And right there is the discrepancy in data usage by type of phone.
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Thank you for explaining that.

I wonder what the data (sales AND usage) look like if you constrain it to developed nations.

On the high end, I suspect Apple is still selling more devices, as that is what I see in peoples hands as I walk around.

Working in engineering though, pretty much all of my colleagues use high end Android devices from Samsung, LG, Motorola and HTC. The sales, marketing and finance guys (and gals) tend to gallivant into meetings with their cute little iPhones though.

I don't think I've ever seen a windows mobile device in the wild.
 
It only took what, 50 companies combined to do it?
 
PCunicorn said:
Actually, it's three gens (iPhone 4, and from what I hear it runs like crap on it). On a well supported phone, you WILL get major OS updates on a phone 2 years back, and usually 3 if the phone is still fast enough.
Click to expand...

iPhone 4 is almost unusable on iOS7... iPhone 4s is BARELY....
 
Zarathustra[H];1041004400 said:
I've always found it interesting that while Android devices have been outselling iOS for a long time now by quite a margin, iOS has still led the mobile usage statistics.

I guess that means that iPhone users are bigger phone whores! :p
Click to expand...

No, it's just that iPhone users spend much more time posting selfies on facebook.
 
I just sold my iPad 4th gen for a Nexus.

Facts are facts. iOS had a huge market place advantage when they had a lions market share, even if their products were overpriced and the OS itself locked down and overall quite unimpressive.

Now that this is no longer the case, only brand loyalty can keep iOS sales up as common sense tells you that if there's better hardware out there for the same or less money that is far more configurable with just as many apps... DERP, get the better option!

What really amazes me to no end though is that people still buy iPhones... god those screens are tiny and they suck so hard considering the top dollar people pay. Blech!
 
Ducman69 said:
I just sold my iPad 4th gen for a Nexus.

Facts are facts. iOS had a huge market place advantage when they had a lions market share, even if their products were overpriced and the OS itself locked down and overall quite unimpressive.

Now that this is no longer the case, only brand loyalty can keep iOS sales up as common sense tells you that if there's better hardware out there for the same or less money that is far more configurable with just as many apps... DERP, get the better option!

What really amazes me to no end though is that people still buy iPhones... god those screens are tiny and they suck so hard considering the top dollar people pay. Blech!
Click to expand...

Tell me about it.

When the iPhone was new there wasn't anything else that did what it did well. I had the original iPhone, followed by the 3G and later 4.

The 4 - I feel - was a mistake. At that point Android had caught up, and I should have switched.

After the iPhone 4, I got a Galaxy S3, and now I am rocking an LG G2 (as well as a Nexus 7 2013 tablet) I was ecstatic when I could finally uninstall that garbage that is iTunes from my desktop. :)

When I first saw the G2 I was AMAZED by it's screen. Nothing else compared. The likes of the Galaxy S5 and HTC One M8 - I feel - have since caught up, but the G3 has leapfrogged them again. Looking at that screen in the store was a thing of beauty!

Anyway, my girlfriend recently upgraded from an iPhone 4s to an iPhone 5s. Her previous screen was IMHO practically unbearable to use. I was expecting more of an upgrade going to the 5s, but I have to say I am rather disappointed in it.

Can't quite figure out why she insists on sticking with Apple products, but whatever makes her happy. In the laymans eyes anything branded apple must be "better" for some reason, even with inferior specs, worse screens, etc. etc.

Unless something major changes, I will likely never buy another Apple product, but quite frankly, it is really none of my business what other people choose to use. If they are happy with, and comfortable with something, then they should use it!
 
Zarathustra[H];1041006150 said:
Tell me about it.

When the iPhone was new there wasn't anything else that did what it did well. I had the original iPhone, followed by the 3G and later 4.

The 4 - I feel - was a mistake. At that point Android had caught up, and I should have switched.

After the iPhone 4, I got a Galaxy S3, and now I am rocking an LG G2 (as well as a Nexus 7 2013 tablet) I was ecstatic when I could finally uninstall that garbage that is iTunes from my desktop. :)

When I first saw the G2 I was AMAZED by it's screen. Nothing else compared. The likes of the Galaxy S5 and HTC One M8 - I feel - have since caught up, but the G3 has leapfrogged them again. Looking at that screen in the store was a thing of beauty!

Anyway, my girlfriend recently upgraded from an iPhone 4s to an iPhone 5s. Her previous screen was IMHO practically unbearable to use. I was expecting more of an upgrade going to the 5s, but I have to say I am rather disappointed in it.

Can't quite figure out why she insists on sticking with Apple products, but whatever makes her happy. In the laymans eyes anything branded apple must be "better" for some reason, even with inferior specs, worse screens, etc. etc.

Unless something major changes, I will likely never buy another Apple product, but quite frankly, it is really none of my business what other people choose to use. If they are happy with, and comfortable with something, then they should use it!
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Wow, what an ignorant post. The last several iPhones have been tops in the industry in speed and performance WHEN RELEASED. Yet androidtards keep comparing them to phones that are released months after.

Screen size is subjective as well, maybe people don't want something that big? A 4s to 5s was a huge upgrade.
 
How many different vendors and models are there with Android? How many with Apple? I have to say Apple is still doing great for a single vendor with a few models (4, 4S, 5, 5S, 5C along with the older ones), compared to Androids hundreds of different models out there. That's quite a feat for Apple.

I prefer Android over iOS, but it's not as refined and polished as Apple's OS is. Windows Phone is in between for me. I love it. Still locked down like iOS, but very functional.
 
XvMMvX said:
Wow, what an ignorant post. The last several iPhones have been tops in the industry in speed and performance WHEN RELEASED. Yet androidtards keep comparing them to phones that are released months after.

Screen size is subjective as well, maybe people don't want something that big? A 4s to 5s was a huge upgrade.
Click to expand...

I'm not talking raw processor performance. Quite frankly above a certain level which supports basic use, it is rather irrelevant. I don't even look at the myriad of phone performance benchmarks as I know that any one I pick up will be fast enough for a few years of use.

As far as the screen goes, its not just a matter of size. Using an iPhone these days is a harsh experience and hurts my eyes compared with the quality of the screens on some of the top Android phones.

My biggest reason for preferring Android over the iPhone though, is the open development landscape. I can run what I want on my phone, not just what some company deems useful or in line with their terms in a closed store running in a sandbox on the device rather than natively.

I want my phone to be more like my computer, not my computer to be more like my phone.
 
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