While the basic market share standings of the mobile world don’t change much, the finer details of each platform can still yield some interesting information from time to time. That’s why it can be good to take a look at the market every now and then to how adoption of smartphones and other smart devices is growing and how popular each OS is with consumers.
Market research firm GlobalWebIndex recently published a study on smart device adoption as it stood at the end of the third quarter of 2014, interviewing more than 41,000 consumers in 32 markets around the globe to see what devices they use. Some of the markets included in the study are the U.S., Canada, Brazil, the U.K., Turkey, Ireland, China, Japan, Australia, and the Philippines.
According to GWI’s study, 4 of every 5 adults surveyed own a smartphone, nearly half own a tablet. and almost 1/10th have a smartwatch on their wrist. Smartphone ownership is highest in the Asia Pacific region and lowest in North America. The report also shows that more men own smartphones than women, and the two largest smartphone-owning age groups are 16 to 24 and 35 to 44.
How do the top mobile OSes fare, you ask? GWI’s research finds that Android has quite a large lead over iOS. On the smartphone side, Android has held a lead over iOS ever since GWI’s numbers began in Q2 2011. At the end of Q3 2014, Android was the smartphone OS of choice for 54 percent of respondents while iOS claim 16 percent. Thing were a bit closer in the tablet world, with Android taking 20 percent of the market and iOS around 13 percent.
Looking at individual countries, GWI notes that Android does better in “fast-growth markets” like Argentina and Poland. It’s said that there are 3 to 6 times as many people using Android as there are iOS, with that number being even higher in some countries. Meanwhile, Apple sees better engagement rates in mature market like the U.S., Canada, Japan, and Australia.
Finally, GWI took a look at which devices are being used as a “second screen” while doing something like watching TV. Smartphones are in the lead with around 55 percent of users, while laptops are in second, desktops in this, and tablets in fourth. Respondents say that chatting with friends is their biggest second-screen activity, following by reading the news and playing games.
