Android posts highest ever market share in latest mobile data

It’s the weekend and who doesn’t love some statistics between BBQs, bike rides and late nights? OK, I may be alone on that front, but Statista has some new figures on OS market share based on new smartphone sales that are pretty exciting. While you’ve been busy suntanning, the Android OS has posted its highest ever market share based on sales to end users.

Record market share

By the end of the first half of 2016, Android represented an incredible 86.2% of global mobile smartphone sales. While that figure has yo-yoed around that figure for the last few years, the most recent quarter topped the previous record of 84.7% in Q3, 2015.

What’s even better is that Android’s market share typically grows for 2-3 quarters before dropping off a little when the new iPhone hits. That means Android’s market share in Q3 may well break the 88% barrier before slowing down again.

On the other hand, in the gutter of Statista’s graph, lies iOS, which still sits comfortably in second place above the myriad other flatlining mobile OSes on the list. Apple’s mobile market share has been on an ever-so-slight decline in the last five years, something the company is surely hoping to reverse with the upcoming iPhone 7.

Units shipped

Statista also shows that Android shipped 296.91 million units in Q2, 2016, up from 293.77 in Q1 but down from its high water mark of 325.39 million devices in the quarter before (Q4, 2015). As we already know, Android has the market share by a country mile, but Apple still makes 95% of the mobile market’s profits.

By comparison, Apple shipped 44.4 million iPhones in Q2, down from 51.63 in Q1 and 71.53 million when the iPhone 6s came out late last year. But even that figure couldn’t match the 74.83 million iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Pluses shipped in Q4, 2014. In Q2, 2016, BlackBerry’s market share dropped to just 0.4%.

Does any of this surprise you? Did you really just read statistics on the weekend?