Apple iOS global smartphone OS market share 2011-2017, by quarter

About This Statistic

This graphic shows the market share held by Apple's iOS in the global smartphone OS market from 2011 to 2017. In the first quarter of 2017, Apple had a global smartphone OS market share of 14.9 percent.

Apple’s iOS - additional information

Prior to the launch of Apple’s iPhone in 2007, smartphones were a rather niche product and had not yet attained mass appeal. At the time, the most popular smartphone operating system was Symbian, with a 63 percent market share, largely due to its compatibility with Nokia products. In the ranking of OS market leaders, Symbian was followed by Microsoft Windows Mobile and RIM (Research in Motion), the operating system of Blackberry smartphones.

When it was launched, the iPhone was not only one of the first phones with a touch display, it was also the first smartphone to gain unprecedented popularity and changed the market completely. iPhone unit sales went from 2.3 millions in the 1st quarter of the company’s 2008 fiscal year to almost 75 million eight years later. As of 2015, according to Apple’s CEO Tim Cook, Apple has sold a total of 700 million iPhones worldwide. Along with a spike in the popularity of its smartphone, Apple’s iOS also gained market share on the mobile operating system market. Today iOS is the second-most popular mobile operating system behind Android.

According to forecasts, the iOS market share will continue to be behind Android’s in the in the following years on both the smartphone OS market, as well as the tablet computer OS worldwide market. Its smart wristwear version however, watchOS, is dominating the smart wristwear operating systems industry as of 2015 and is set to maintain its lead in 2019.