Kantar Worldpanel: Life in a Two-OS World

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According to Kantar Worldpanel the days of a BlackBerry OS, Symbian or Windows Phone making "significant" impact are over, since the mobile industry is all but dominated by iOS-Android duopoly.

Kantar mobileThe biggest 5 European markets (Great Britain, Germany, France, Italy and Spain) are dominated by Android-- the Google OS accounts for 74.3% of smartphone sales in the quarter ending January 2017, a "marginal" increase over the 72.9% of the same period in the previous year. In the meantime iOS holds 22.7%, with the iPhone 7 remaining the top-selling device in Great Britain, France and Germany.

Kantar points out Nokia as a potential success story in the region, as brand owner HMD Global is focusing on quality for cost with well made mid-tier devices. Such smartphones will not rival the iPhone 7 or the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S8, but do compete with the likes of the Huawei 8 and P9 Lite, both strong sellers in the price-conscious Italian and Spanish markets.

“February’s Mobile World Congress 2017 demonstrated the true state of the market, with re-emerging brand names Nokia and Blackberry capturing a lot of attention, but now operating on Android rather than on their own legacy operating systems,” the analyst remarks. “We witnessed something of a throwback to times past with the new Nokia 3310 feature phone, an updated version of the iconic Nokia look, plus several new Nokia Android smartphones being marketed by HMD, now the exclusive licensee of the Nokia brand. BlackBerry’s new manufacturing partner TCL Communication announced the Android-based BlackBerry KEYone, which includes a classic Blackberry-style physical keyboard.”

Moving to the US, Android accounts for 56.4% of smartphone sales sold in the quarter ending January 2017, down 1.8% percentage points from the same period a year earlier. iOS makes 45%, a 2.9% Y-o-Y increase. Apple and Samsung dominate 70% of the US market, making it difficult for any other company to take a decent-size slice of the pie.

After all the 3rd largest company, LG, makes 11.1% of sales in the 3 months ending January 2017, and Kantar doubts the upcoming G6 will have "significant impact" on such share.

Go iOS and Android Push Towards a Two-OS World