The Android OS system is now the number one mobile OS for smartphones in the U.K. with a 36.9% slice of the pie as of the end of last month. Last year at the same time, Android had a 20.1% share of the U.K. smartphone market which trailed both the leading 29.2% market share belonging to iOS and the 26.7% belonging to Symbian.
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Android is now number one in the U.K.
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Just like in the U.S., Android models started getting launched in the U.K. in waves with different models offering different screen sizes, more powerful processors and a multitude of new features. This fragmentation worked in Android's favor in the U.K. where Google's open source OS had to compete against just 3 iOS powered smartphones. And while Android did overtake iOS and Symbian to reach the top spot in the United Kingdom, it was the sharp drop in Symbian's share that Android quickly gobbled up.
With Nokia now using Windows Phone, you can expectfurther declines from Symbian and some gains from Microsoft's mobile OS. Still, Windows Phone will probably not pick up all that Symbian loses leaving more room for Android to gain market share. Last quarter in the U.S., the launch of the Apple iPhone 4S allowed the latter to hold a leading 48.4% share of the smartphone market. Android held 42.8% of the U.S. market in Q4.
According to Dominic Sunnebo, global consumer insight director at Kantar Worldpanel ComTech, for the first time ever, the percentage of Brits using a smartphone is over the half-way mark at 50.3%.
