Mobile operating systems World wide

Smartphones are everywhere, probably everyone has one. There are a lot of different manufacturers, whole bunch of different hardware specifications. But only three operating systems that really matter. So how do they stand on the global market.

First one is Android, the absolute king. Leader in all the countries the research was done in and not only that, there market share is increasing. This operating system is getting a lot of criticism lately but according to the statistics it's on almost every phone.

Second on the list is iOS from Apple. There market share is on the opposite trajectory then Android from Google. Platform is loosing ground almost in every country. Some say this is expected, they only have one smartphone per year, they can't hold that much of the market with only that.

And of course third on the list is Windows Phone from Microsoft. This has been a hit and miss quarter for them. In some countries they are improving in some they are falling, globally there just about the same as they where.

Three IT giants battling over the smartphone market, probably the most importante one there is at the moment. Lot of innovations and new devices are coming for all platforms, so it's needless to say that things will remain very interesting in the years to come.

Source kantarworldpanel.

Another smartphone chart

People at statista made a new smartphone chart that contains three IT giants, Apple, Microsoft and Google. This is a chart about smartphones and their prices across different platforms. According to this chart Apple and Google are happy with their results, while Microsoft has something to look forward to in the future.

This chart represents second quarter of 2014, where Android manufacturers have shipped 249.6 million smartphones, majority of those phones are still low-end 58.66%. Apple and their iOS platform have a reason to be happy, considering they don't make low-end iOS devices and have only made one mid-range device so far. Their market share is 84.6% of high-end smartphones, keep in mind that these type of devices bring in the biggest profit.

Microsoft is still struggling, but they could have a bright future for their Windows Phone platform. So far most of their smartphones are low-end devices, Android wasn't any different when it got started. Also Windows Phone is faster and better at using limited hardware then Android is, it still doesn't have as many apps but that could change very soon. Also there are many new manufacturers that are planing or already developing smartphones with this operating system, so thing could get interesting really soon.

Of course these chart looks simple, but it isn't, it only tries to simplify things. Smartphone market is huge, spread all across the globe and has to much variables that it could fit in to one small chart. Almost everyone that takes a look will interpret this data differently and that's OK, because there really isn't any clear winner here. As far as the consumers are concern the more competition the better the products, the more innovation there will be and that is all that matters.

Source statista.

If you see a Smartphone it's Probably Android

If you are walking around somewhere and you see someone typing or talking on their smartphone, chances are that smartphone has an Android operating system. Sure there are places where Apple and there iOS are dominant, there are also places where people use mostly Windows Phone, but world wide Android is still the most used operating system on smartphones.

According to Strategy Analytics last year in the world there were 1.7 billion smartphones sold and Android is on 81.3 percent of those devices. Apple operating system iOS takes up 13.4 percent of the market, which is still a great number considering they were making only one smartphone a year, and now two smartphones with their so called budget iPhone 5c. Windows Phone has doubled it's market share in one year and is now on 4.1 percent world wide, still a very low number, but it is expected to increase in 2014.

In the last quarter smartphone sales were up by 45 percent to a total number of 251 million units sold word wide. Not strange considering smartphone sales are always at their best during the holiday season. In 2014 it is expected that the smartphone market will increase by 5 percent.

Source strategy analytics.

iOS 7.1 Beta Released for Developers

Apple has finally released iOS 7.1 beta to developers. Beta was available in the beginning of January offering visual changes and now bug fixes and improvements. So this must mean that the consumers will get the update in the coming weeks.

It's still unknown what changes will iOS 7.1 bring to the iPhone and iPad. Let's just hope that the Cupertino based company has figured out what they didn't do right with the iOS 7. There was a lot of unhappy people with the latest operating system, which is something you don't see very often coming from Apple costumers.

Source 9to5mac.

Microsoft Windows Phone in Double Digits

Microsoft can be proud to announce that WindowsPhone is in double digits. Well at least in some markets.  Worldwide WP is somewhere around 4%. Europa seams to like combination of Nokia Lumia and WP. On two big EU markets Microsoft OS is over 10%. In Great Britain it has 12% market share, France 10,8%, Italy 9,5% and Germany 8,8%. So in those two countries it's just shy of double digits.

These results are mostly credited to Nokia Lumia smartphones, and not so much to the flagship phones but rather to the mid-range Lumia phones. Which are not that expensive and offer a quality product from Nokia and a fast WP operating system. HTC and Samsung have there WP lineup but their sales results are not very good.

Across Europa Android is still the supreme ruler of the market with 70%. Second OS is iOS with 16% and then WP with 9%. BlackBerry is completely out of the game and it's market share keeps dropping. Also in Australia WP almost double it's market share form 3,7% to 6,5%. However in US it's only at 3% and in China even worse with 2%.

Keep in mind WP is the youngest operating system on the market, it's not even 3 years old. While iOS is 7 years old and Android just turned 5 years old. So we can expect more from Microsoft OS in the future as WindowsPhone matures.

Apple Paid EA to Postpone Plants Vs Zombies 2

Plants Vs Zombies was a big hit on all platforms. In this game you play the role of the Gardner whose house is invaded by zombies and he uses plants to defend the house. You have to use defensive strategies to kill wave after wave of zombies. The game is addicted and fun.

Plants Vs Zombies 2 was announced some time ago and so far it has only launched on iOS. No Android or Windows version of the game yet. Everyone thought that Apple paid EA for this decision but it was never any evidence, until now. The head of EA Frank Gibbeau made a comment saying

“Apple gave us a truckload of money to delay the Android version [of Plants vs Zombies 2].”

In the past EA has done exclusives with Sony and Microsoft, so why should we be surprised they are doing similar things with Apple. EA doesn't have a great reputation as a company, in the United States EA was voted the worst company two years in a row. They even had more votes than the banks, and we all know how much people hate the banks.

The game should be released on Android next month. In China it was already released on Android and it's selling better than the iOS version. Worldwide the game is a big hit on the iOS with more then 25 million downloads.

PopCap refused to comment on this situation saying

“We can’t comment on internal meetings.”

Microsoft Office for iPad and Android

Earlier this year Microsoft has released  their Microsoft Office app for the iPhone. However they did not release this app for iPad or any other Android based tablet. According to Steve Ballmer they are already working on bringing MS Office to iPad and Android tablets. The only tablet that supports MS Office at this time is Surface RT.

This is not the first time that Microsoft is bringing their programs to other operating systems. The company has already released SkyDrive, Skype and OneNote for Android and iOS. This is definitely a positive example by Microsoft and something that other companies should do in the future.

Maybe we will here more about this on Microsoft event this Monday, where they plan to introduce the new Surface tablet lineup.