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About This Statistic
The statistic shows the market share of the Android operating system of smartphone sales worldwide from 2011 to 2016. In the fourth quarter of 2015, Android's market share was 80.7 percent. As of 2014, Android's most popular platform version was KitKat.
Android OS - additional information
In 2003, when the smartphone market was still in its early development stages, Android. Inc. was founded in Palo Alto, California, with the initial intention of creating an operating system for digital cameras. Two years later, the company was acquired by Google, confirming rumors of the tech giant’s plans to enter the mobile phone market. The first Android operating system was introduced in 2007, with the goal to compete with the then-leading smartphone operating system Symbian. Android accomplished this goal by 2011, when it became the leader of the global smartphone OS market, with about 47 percent of the share, while Symbian fell to third place and was pushed out of the market by 2013.
As Symbian faded out of the market, Apple became Android’s main competitor on the mobile operating system market. However, Android has been the main player in the market since 2012, and is forecast to maintain this leadership in the coming years. In the first quarter of 2016, about 84 percent of smartphones sold to end users used Android as its operating system. Android is expected to maintain its smartphone market share of about 85 percent up to 2020, while Apple’s iOS is projected to account for 15 percent. One of the main reasons for Android’s popularity is its strong collaboration with smartphone manufacturers, such as Sony, Samsung and HTC, while the iOS is limited to operating on Apple devices.
Upon its success in the smartphone market, Android has expanded its operating system to tablets. Android had a slow start in this market, mainly due to the lack of quality applications for Android tablets. However, Android managed to overcome this issue and establish itself as the leading tablet operating system in 2012. Android is now the most used operating system for tablets worldwide, with a 67 percent share of the global market in 2015.
