Like the never ending war between east and west, AC and DC and many others, the tussle between iOS and Android becomes really tense often. Both the mobile OS have awe-striking features with the die-hard followers and fans who won’t back off when it comes to defend their favorite OS.
Numbers and statistics can win arguments. They give an idea about the success of a product. Sharing good statistics and numbers is a good marketing strategy as well, as there is a lot who follows majority. But here, what we have to dig for is: does Android or iOS wins the battle in ‘number’ field?
Since both the OS’ have uniquely different platforms, a direct and one to one comparison is quite difficult. But here in the following paras we will be examining both as fairly as possible.
Popularity among customers
After the recent launch of iPhone 4S and the enthusiasm shown by the consumer party, the balance of this category is obvious to bend towards iPhone. People have been waiting for the epic launch since the announcement and when they finally arrived, vendors had their aisles jam-packed. Over four million handsets were sold over the opening weekend by the Cupertino based company. This number exceeds that of most Android handsets sold during their entire existence.
The popularity analysis can also be done by looking at popularly used handsets with all the service providers in United States. The wireless operators which can be judged in this category are only those who provide their services for both Android and iPhone. If taken in U.S it will be Verizon and AT&T with Sprint initiating to offer iPhone most recently.
According to a report published on the behalf of Apple: iPhone is the most favorite mobile being used with the top two wireless carriers for last six months. Keeping in view the fact that both the companies offer Android services with Android as well, iPhone wins the race.
Market Share
OK, unlike the previous category, winner of this contest is Android. With marketing researchers claiming its share to be 40 to 55 percent against iPhones 24 to 28 percent, Android has taken over the winner aisle. Being hard to compute such numbers, some eye keepers debate it to be insignificant, for instance Jim Dalrymple from The Loop observes,
There is no compelling argument that anyone can give that says that comparing an operating system to a hardware device makes sense. None… That would be like comparing one model of Mercedes against all cars that GM makes and saying that Mercedes is losing. It just doesn’t make any sense… There are currently six manufacturers — Dell, HTC, Kyocera, LG, Motorola, and Samsung — making 42 smartphones using the Android operating system.
Though unfair to judge any platform in terms of market share success, we would vote this one in favor of Android.
Shipments outside U.S
As proven inadequate in the lines above, counting the numbers of iPhones against the Android powered handsets won’t be feasible. Thus, here, we will talk in terms of vendors.
Samsung:
Has been successful in selling thirty million Galaxy phones, including Galaxy S and S II, and crossing their set mark. Both the sets are Samsung’s best sellers and available in the market since early 2009. The numbers are lesser than Apple’s iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4 total sales in last six months i.e. Thirty seven million.
Motorola:
With its Droid line and recent acquisition by Google, Motorola tops the list of Android smartphone manufacturer. Only during the second quarter of 2011, the company shipped out 4.4 million smartphones including models such as the Droid 2, the Droid 3, the Motorla Atrix, and many other with different wireless carrier. The future seems bright for the company with the recent launches comprising Droid Bionic and Motorola Razr.
HTC:
No official publications were found about the sales of HTC this year around, but as some of the reports and reviews claim, the company was able to ship out almost eleven million units this year. The number brings HTC ahead of Motorola mobility but the fact that the former sells mobile with Android as well as windows phone 7 operating systems, must not be ignored.
To conclude the argument; the numbers boasted by any Android vendor cannot surpass those of iPhone alone, thus the trophy goes to Apple.
Revenue Generated
Making money is the foremost objective of all the smartphone manufacturers, thus this one is crucial for the one’s competing. But even here, for fair comparison we will have to bring Android handsets against iPhones as offering android as an open source software, Google does not get paid by the handset manufacturers for its usage.
A few days ago, Apple announced its quarter for revenue to be $28.27 billion $14 billion was generated from the sales of only two models alone: the iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4.
Whereas Samsung is reported to have earned $4 billion for the same quarter, in which smartphones have the same share as other products. Similarly, the quarterly revenue for Motorola, which spans the time till July this year, is $3.3 billion, which again comes from more than only the smartphones sales.
The number for HTC is $4.4 billion for the quarter ended in October this year. The sales include tablets and smart phone with both Android and Windows 7 OS.
As it is clear from the numbers above, iPhone brings home more money for Apple than all the three top Android vendors combined. Not to forget that the statistics provided here are not final as most of the companies’ haven’t published their revenue for the recent quarter yet.
Bottom line:
Numbers govern the decision of determining the success of any product. If taken into account the statistics, and comparing them being unbiased, the numbers go in favor of Apple.
It sweeps the popularity ratio, more iPhones than Androids are shipped every time a new version of either is launched and it makes more money than all the android manufacturers put together.
Android has its market share to boast against iPhone, which is quite obvious with a lot of Android-based handsets available in market.
Thus to conclude, Android gadgets are cooler with new technologies emerging every day and most importantly it is affordable, but you won’t see customers cramming shops the next time a new Android is launched. People prefer using iOS based smartphones and numbers have proved it.
