Every so often the latest report comes through and helps to further understand the ever-changing Android landscape. The most recent of which was released this morning from Kantar Worldpanel ComTech and looks to help shed light on how the Android operating system is being adopted on a worldwide basis. The figures noted in this report specifically relate to the first quarter of this year (the three months leading up to and including March 2016).
In terms of what the latest report reveals and what seems to be the overriding headline aspect is that Android is continuing its growth across a variety of regions including Europe, the U.S. and China. However, what Kantar has focused on specifically is the growth of Android as an operating system within Europe’s top 5, aka the ‘EU5’. A group of countries which include Great Britain, Germany, France, Italy and Spain. In this particular region, Kantar notes that Android has increased its stance by as much as 7.1-percent, taking its new adoption level to 75.6-percent. An increase which an analyst for Kantar Worldpanel ComTech described as “the strongest growth for Android across the EU5 in more than two years.” As a form of comparison for the wider market as a whole, the same data notes an decrease for all other mobile operating systems in the region including iOS, during the same period. Essentially, highlighting Android took away from those alternative OS options during the first three months of the year.
As mentioned, it is not only Europe that has seen gains though, with Kantar noting an equally large increase in the U.S. as well with Android gaining a market growth increase to the tune of 7.3-percent, which takes its share to 65.5-percent. With the Android gains in the U.S., said to come primarily from partner manufacturers like Samsung, Motorola, and LG and the Samsung Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S6 both being name-dropped. Which is no small feat for the Galaxy S7 when you consider that this device only became available to buy in the closing weeks of the time-frame measured. In fact, Kantar made it clear that in spite of only being available for a short period within Q1, the Galaxy S7 did manage to become the fifth best selling device for the entire quarter. While the increase was not as high (percentage-wise) in China as it was in the EU5 or the U.S., the China increase still came in at close to 6-percent, taking its overall market share in China to 77-percent.