iPhone 6 makes iOS a success in the UK, but Android fights back in Japan

By Andy Boxall December 4, 2014

IPhone 6 Plus studio back bottom

The latest research from Kantar WorldPanel shows British smartphone buyers really love the new iPhone 6 and with it, iOS 8. According to the stats, which are based on operating system usage rather than sales, Apple’s iOS market share in the country is now at a record high of 39.5 percent, up from 29 percent this time last year. The 10 percent increase is by far the company’s most impressive, but it has seen improvements almost across the board.

Interestingly, it’s only in Japan where iOS’s market share has fallen. It still remains Apple’s strongest at 48 percent, but that’s down 13 percent from 2013’s whopping 61 percent share. At that time, eight out of every 10 smartphones sold in Japan were made by Apple. The split between Apple’s iOS and Android is now almost identical, with Google’s OS stealing 11 percent of iOS’s loss. Back in the UK, Android is still the most popular operating system, with just over 52 percent of the market. This figure has dropped around 2 percent since last year.

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Kantar WorldPanel’s figures for the U.S. show both Android and iOS holding steady, at 53 percent and 41 percent respectively. Microsoft’s Windows Phone operating system has dropped a percentage point, and now sits at a miserable 3.6 percent share. Staying with Windows Phone, in the UK – a previously strong market – it has slipped more than 4 percent to 7.7 percent. Kantar shows Italy and France rather like Windows Phone, but Android reigns absolutely supreme with a 70 percent share in each.

The iPhone 6 and 6 Plus were released in October, and Apple is still in the process of spreading the new devices around the world. In mid-November, research from UBS showed the iPhone 6 made up 68 percent of all Apple’s mobile sales, while the larger 6 Plus took around 23 percent. Apple sold 10 million iPhone models over the opening weekend, setting another sales record for the company.

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Andy is a Senior Writer at Digital Trends, where he concentrates on mobile technology, a subject he has written about for…

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