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iPhone and Android 2011 Marketshare – Real World Data

December 14th, 2011

iPhone and Android 2011 Marketshare – Real World Data

Everyone knows there are two dominant players in the smartphone race – iPhone and Android – and since Mobify powers a network of over 18,000 mobile sites, we wanted to see the level of their dominance.

So we did a little number crunching.

We started with mobile traffic in May, 2011 and compared it to mobile traffic six months later in November, 2011. With the reach and scale of the Mobify network, this comparison feels like a better representation of the mobile web reality as it’s built on real world mobile traffic.

Here’s what we found.

The key lesson? The two 800 pound gorillas in the smartphone race – iPhone and Android – are eating the market share of everyone else.

In the 6 months from May, 2011 to November, 2011:

  • Android gained marketshare, up 13.3%
  • iPhone also gained marketshare, up 1.21%

What does this mean?

Android is gaining marketshare, but not from the iPhone. Both are expanding their marketshare; Android is just gaining it at a greater rate than the iPhone and from second-tier players.

So, where is this marketshare coming from?  The main loser of marketshare was:

  • BlackBerry, down 65.8%
There was also movement, both up and down, by second-tier players.
  • Samsung and Windows legacy devices, down 44% and 63% respectively
  • Nokia up 54%
  • Windows Phone 7 grabbed 0.3% of the market.

Absolute Marketshare on Mobile Web

Despite the impressive relative change in marketshare of the marginal players, their total share still comprises just over 1% of the total market.

iPhone and Android make up 44% and 37% of all visits respectively, combining for a total of 81% of all visits.

BlackBerry, once a major driver of mobile traffic, now accounts for only 2.78% of visits.

The Future of Mobile Web Traffic

What will the future hold?

Will the upcoming Nokia handsets help Windows Phone 7 become a major player? Will the BlackBerry 10 OS (formerly BBX) help RIM claw back marketshare? Will Ice Cream Sandwich give Android the boost it needs to overtake the iPhone, or will it be nullified by the iPhone 5?

Only time will tell.  And when it does, we’ll be here, giving you an inside look into what were seeing on the Mobify network.

Are there any other statistics you’re interested in? Feel free to ask questions in the comments. We’re always happy to shed some light and share information.

  • Tom Singer

    Do you have a breakdown of iOS version to go with this?

    • Phil Webb

      Hi Tom, 

      Great question – we’ll probably explore this in more detail in a later blog post. 

      Over the past month, our iPhone traffic broke down as follows:

      iOS2 – 2.7%
      iOS3 – 9.3%
      iOS4 – 33.2%
      iOS5 – 54.8%

      It’s interesting to see that even though iOS5 was only released in October, it has already been adopted by over half of iPhone users.

  • http://twitter.com/c_holic Sang Ho Lim

    I can’t believe 0.7% uses WP7. No matter how Microsoft advertise goodness of their platforms and encourage developers to create WP7 applications, developers would rather develop applications in android and iphone than in WP platform. 

    About WP7,
    http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/14/windows-phone-7-caught-in-mobile-app-catch-22/

    and statistics of real world data can be found on
    http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/29/google-and-apple-are-both-winners-in-mobile-race-report-says/

    I sort of regret buying Samsung Focus WP7. I am definitely going to go for Android for the next term.

  • http://www.sincerelygeorge.com/ Sincerely George

    Great breakdown, it’s amazing how quickly things are changing.  It is interesting to learn that Android AND iPhone are gaining market share.  That says a lot about what functionality people want from their phone

  • Jdri

    I would loive to know screen size resolution for all the new traffic….

    • Phil Webb

      Hi Jdri,

      Most new traffic is from the iPhone at 320×480 or 960×480.  

      After that, there’s a sharp drop off in volume due to the fragmentation of Android devices.

      Most new hits from Android devices are from the HTC EVO 4G and Motorola DroidX running and 480×800 and 480×854 respectively.

  • Pingback: Apple iOS Now Larger than OSX: Leading the Move to Mobile | Mobify

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