Apple gains smartphone market share; iOS 8 adoption up to 68%
While we'll all be waiting until January 27 to hear exactly how Apple fared financially in the last calendar quarter of 2014 (Q1 FY 2015), it appears that very strong sales of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus led to gains in market share for iOS in a number of countries, much to the detriment of Android and Windows.
The news comes from Kantar Worldpanel ComTech, which released data this morning showing market share for Android, iOS, Windows and "Other" smartphones in the three months ending November 2014 and 2013.
Year over year, Great Britain saw the most dramatic uptake in iOS, with market share jumping 12.2 percent from 30.3 to 42.5. While iOS market share didn't climb as much Down Under, Android was beaten with an iOS-flavored waddy in Australia, losing a 10.1 percent share year over year while iOS jumped up 9.9 percent a 44.9 percent share.
Closer to home, iOS saw a modest gain of 4.3 percent to 47.4 percent, while Android and Windows fell slightly by 2.0 and 1.6 percent respectively.
The only place where iOS took a beating was in Japan, with iOS falling from a 69.1 percent share in 2013 to 53.8 in 2014. That 15.3 percent drop was taken up by Android phones (which gained 12.4 percent more market share) and "Other".
In other iOS news, Apple's developer support page is now showing that a full 68 percent of iOS devices are running iOS 8 as of January 5, 2015. iOS 7 takes up the lion's share of the rest of devices at 29 percent, while just a scant 4 percent of devices are running earlier versions of the mobile operating system.
