The statistic shows share of smartphone shipments worldwide by operating system from 2009 to 2017. In 2017, 85.9 percent of all smartphones sold had Android as its operating system.

Smartphone operating systems market - additional information

The operating system, also known as an OS, transmits user commands to all other programs and applications. It also controls the peripheral devices, such as printers or cameras. A mobile OS operates on hand-held devices, such as mobile phones, smartphones, tablets or smart watches. While OS themselves are usually available for free and are already installed on the device, the additional programs and apps are tailored specifically for each system.

As of 2014, the main players on the smartphone OS market are Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS. Other smartphone operating systems on the market include Microsoft’s Windows Phone and Blackberry’s RIM to a lesser extent. Symbian, which was used extensively on mobile phones and early generations of smartphones by leading manufacturers, such as Samsung, LG, Motorola and most notably Nokia, was a dominant player on the market in 2009 and 2010. Due to the growing popularity of Android, which most major smartphone manufacturers adopted as their OS of choice, and Nokia’s partnership with Windows Phone, which began in 2011, Symbian was effectively pushed off the market in 2014.

Google’s Android leads the global market with an 80 percent market share, while Apple’s iOS is second, with 15 percent. There are stark differences between regional markets; in the United States for example, the market is almost equally divided between Android and iOS.

The predominance of Android smartphones over iOS in Spain is indisputable: from 2013 to June 2024 the Google-developed operating system held over 75 percent of the total market share. Apple’s iOS market share peaked in April 2023 with 23.6 percent of the total share. This trend can vary significantly across countries – the popularity of iOS devices in the United Kingdom, for instance, was greater than that of Android for a long while, although the Google system has gained widespread acceptance among the British population in recent years.

In the first quarter of 2023, Android held a market share worth nearly 79 percent of the mobile market in Colombia, followed by iOS, with just under 21 percent. No other operating system held a share larger than one percent.

Around 70 percent of smartphones in Germany used Android as an operating system as of June 2023. Apple's iOS was Android's only main competitor, accounting for the remaining 30 percent of the market.

This statistic shows the market share held by the leading smartphone operating systems in Mexico from 2013 to 2018, by month. In December 2018, the Android operating system had a market share of 94.5 percent in Mexico.

Smartphone OS market share in Mexico - additional information

The Android Operating System has seen its market share steadily rise in Mexico throughout, with the company finishing 2016 controlling over 90 percent of the market. These figures are consistent with recent worldwide trends in which Android has asserted its dominance in the market. The Google-backed company is predicted to hold almost 85 percent share of the global smartphone market by 2016, in stark contrast to the 3.9 percent share it had in 2009.

Despite the fact that Blackberry has struggled in the global markets in recent years, it has persisted in the Mexican market with less than one percent of the market since the beginning of 2016. In contrast, Apple’s iOS has achieved limited success in Mexico in comparison to its popularity in the rest of the world. At the end of 2016, the Apple operating system held 3.7 percent of the market share in Mexico, which is significantly lower than the 18.3 percent market share it enjoyed globally.

The mobile phone industry in general has grown in Mexico since 2009. An estimated 70 percent of the population, are forecast to use a mobile phone by 2017, this is the equivalent of around 86 million people. Of these mobile users in Mexico, 57.8 percent are predicted to own a smartphone by 2017, in comparison to just 30.7 percent of all mobile users in 2013. This means that 51.8 million people are expected to be smartphone users in Mexico by 2017.

This statistics breaks down the market share of Android mobile operating systems in United Arab Emirates as of September 2018. During the surveyed month of September 2018, almost 45 percent of smartphones in the UAE used an Android operating system.

Windows 10 is the most popular Windows desktop operating system, accounting for a market share of around 65 percent as of July 2024. The share of devices running the older Windows 7 OS has slipped over the past year, with the newer Windows 11 running on around 31 percent of devices. A global dominance in computer operating systems Microsoft’s Windows is the most widely used computer (desktop, tablet, and console) operating system (OS) in the world with more than 68 percent of the market share. It's closest competitors — Apple's macOS and iOS — hold a combined less than 20 percent of the market. Despite its dominance in the computer OS market, Microsoft has been unable to have the same impact on the mobile OS market, where Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS split the market with a combined share of over 99 percent. Operating systems   Operating systems are the underlying platforms connecting computer hardware and software. They provide users with the graphical interface that enables them to issue commands and perform tasks on electronic devices. Almost every device today — from smartphones and desktop computers, to graphical calculators — requires an operating system to function.

Android was the unquestioned leader of the mobile operating system (mobile OS) market in 2018, with 88 percent of all devices sold running the Android system.

Mobile OS ecosystem

Smartphone operating systems, often referred to as smartphone OS, are operating systems that operate smartphones, PDAs, tablets and other mobile devices. An operating system allows these devices to run applications and programs, therefore, bringing advanced functions to mobile devices that were previously restricted to desktop computers.

The now-discontinued OS Symbian was the first popular smartphone operating system in the world. With the launch of Ericsson‘s R380 in 2000, Symbian became the first modern mobile OS on a smartphone. By 2009, Symbian accounted for nearly half of the global smartphone operating systems market, while RIM/Blackberry, also a pioneer in this market, held around 20 percent of the share. Despite the early start, both Symbian and RIM have been almost driven out of the market as new operating systems were released. Apple introduced its first iPhone model to the consumer market in 2007, revolutionizing the market. Prior to the launch of Apple’s iPhone in 2007, smartphones were a rather niche product and had not yet attained mass appeal.

As of 2020, Apple's iPhone held the third largest smartphone market share. Since 2011, Apple’s iOS market share has varied between 14 and 21 percent.

This statistics breaks down the market share of iOS mobile operating systems in United Arab Emirates as of September 2018. During the surveyed month of September 2018, almost 13 percent of smartphones in the UAE used an iOS operating system.

Global Anti Malware for Mobile Devices Market is Segmented by Operating System (Android and iOS), and Geography (North America, Europe, Asia-Pacifici, and Latin America). The market sizes and forecasts are provided in terms of value (USD million) for all the above segments.

Between 2017 and 2024, Android has been the leading mobile operating system in Italy, followed by Apple. In the fourth quarter of 2024, Android occupied around 68 percent of the Italian mobile OS market.

The statistic shows the global market share of smartphone operating systems by version in the first quarter of 2017. The Android 6 operating system accounted for 28.9 percent of the smartphone operating system market.

Global Mobile Advertising Market size worth at USD 174.28 Billion in 2023 and projected to USD 427.37 Billion by 2032, with a CAGR of around 10.48% between 2024-2032.

This graph shows global sales figures for smartphones from 2009 to 2017, broken down by the operating system installed on the phones. In 2017, 1.32 billion Android smartphones were sold around the world.

Global smartphone sales by operating system

In 2013 over 967 million units of smartphones were sold to consumers worldwide. Of the smartphones sold to end users in the final quarter of 2013, almost 78 percent ran on the Android operating system, equating to sales of almost 220 million units. Based on unit shipments of these smart devices, Android’s market share increased further in 2014 with the company holding over 80 percent of the global smartphone operating system market in the first quarter of 2014.

The second most popular smartphone operating system based on sales to consumers is Apple’s iOS. The company held a market share of 17.8 percent in the final quarter of 2013 and sold over 50 million units. In the whole of 2013, a total of over 150 million units of Apple iPhones were sold worldwide, an increase from 125 million units in the previous year. Based on sales of new smartphones worldwide, Apple’s operating system held a market share of 15.5 percent in the first quarter of 2014, a fall from 17.9 percent from the previous quarter. However, Apple smartphones remain particularly popular in the United States where the iOS operating system holds a 42 percent market share, an increase from its 27.3 percent share three years previous. Yet Android remains the dominant operating system in the U.S. as it controls over 50 percent of the smartphone OS market in the country.

The statistic shows the market share of smartphone operating systems of the total global installed base of smartphones from 2013 to 2017. 81 percent of all smartphones that were in use at the end of 2017 were Android devices.

In 2024, the Android operating system version 14.0 had the largest market share with approximately 39.1 percent amongst all mobile Android devices in the United Kingdom. The 13 version held around 21 percent of the Android mobile market in the UK in that year.

In the first quarter of 2024, mobile devices (mobile phones and tablets) running on Android OS accounted for 76.36 percent of the mobile traffic generated by mobile devices in Mexico, making the operating system the most popular in the North American country. iOS ranked second with a 23.38 percent share.

This statistic shows the market share held by the leading smartphone operating systems in Brazil from 2013 to 2018, by month. In September 2018, the Android operating system had a market share of 95 percent in Brazil.

Brazilian smartphone OS market share - additional informatiom

The smartphone industry in Brazil is a growing market with an estimated 70.5 million Brazilians forecast to own a smartphone by 2017. 2013 saw Google-backed Android increase its share in the Brazilian smartphone market by almost 15 percent by the end of the year. The growing prominence of the company can be seen worldwide with Android holding over 50 percent of the U.S. market since 2012 and forecast to control 30 percent of the global market by 2015, a massive increase from its global share of 2.3 percent in 2009.

Indeed, smartphones as a whole are rising in popularity in Brazil, with 42.5 percent of mobile users anticipated to own a smartphone in 2017, up from just 6.5 percent in 2010. Furthermore, Brazil is expected to have a 4.4 percent share in the global smartphone market by 2017, a slight increase from the 3.1 percent share it had in 2013.

The increase in dominance of the Android operating system can be attributed in part to its popular app marketplace, Google Play, which gives users access to over one million downloadable applications, ranging from games and music to online banking and weather apps. As of July 2013, these apps have been downloaded a total of some 50 billion times worldwide since the Google Play store launched in October 2008.

As of August 2024, the Android 14 operating system (OS) dominated the Android space over the Android 13 and 12 versions, holding a share of over 48 percent of all mobile Android devices in the United States. Android 13 held around 18 percent and Android 12 ranked third with approximately 12 percent market share.

This statistics breaks down the market share of Nokia mobile operating systems in United Arab Emirates as of September 2018. During the surveyed month of September 2018, almost 0.02 percent of smartphones in the UAE used a Nokia operating system.