Even though its comes at the cost of fragmentation, Google’s mobile operating system continues to dominate its rivals in major markets around the globe primarily because Android smartphones are available for almost every price point from countless manufacturers. Kantar Worldpanel has published its report on smartphone OS market share for three months ending April 2014. Android was found to have climbed 1.7 points in top five European markets, commanding a total share of 72.4 percent.
The top five European markets include Britain, France, Italy, Germany and Spain. Windows Phone performed well in these markets and clinched a total 8.4 percent of the market share. Apple improved slightly and controls 17.5 percent. As has been the case for the past few years, the growth was at BlackBerry’s expense which lost 1.7 points to the other platforms.
In the U.S. Android extended its lead further and now accounts for 59.1 percent of all smartphones, posting an impressive 7.3 point change. Kantar’s report suggests that iOS faltered during this time, losing 6.8 points and seeing market penetration drop from 41.4 percent to 34.6 percent in the period ending April 2014.
Even Windows Phone was seen to have dropped 0.9 points and coming down from 5.6 percent of the market to 4.7 percent. Surprisingly the report finds a slight improvement in BlackBerry’s fortunes in the U.S., posting a 0.3 point change the ailing Canadian manufacturer’s marketshare in the U.S. is now up from 0.7 percent to a full 1 percent.
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