Android has overtaken Apple to grab the biggest chunk of the installed base of smartphones among consumers in the UK.
According to Kantar Worldpanel ComTech, Google’s mobile OS has bagged a hefty 36.9% share of the smartphones in use among consumers in the UK, streets ahead of Apple’s iPhone, which managed a 28.5% share of all handsets in use.
The figures were gleaned from a four week survey in January 2012, and quizzed users in the US, UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Australia.
Android was found to dominate sales in every country except the US, and in the UK it was discovered that just over half of the population (50.3%) now own a smartphone.
Looking at ongoing sales figures for the last month, Android handsets now grab just under half the market, Apple nearly a third, with beleaguered BlackBerry-maker RIM managing just over 15%.
The Guardian picked out some survey highlights:
• Android dominated sales in every country except the US, where Apple led.
• Android’s sales share was highest in Spain, where it had 65.8% of sales.
• Android’s sales share was lowest in France, at 42.3%.
• Symbian’s sales market share is highest in Italy, at 19.2%, though that is substantially down from 46.8% a year ago.
• Apple’s sales share is lowest in Spain, where it had just 9.2% of the market – the same as a year ago. Symbian previously dominated with 65.3% of sales; now it is the second, with 13.2%, but far behind Android.
• RIM’s sales share is highest in the UK, at 15.5%, and lowest in Australia, at 0.7% – down there from just 3.7% a year ago.
