Android Skew in Smartphone Market Varies in Asia-Pacific

iPhones may have come first, but the rise of Android has been rapid and, in many markets, decisive. Cheaper handsets available from a wider variety of manufacturers have made Google’s OS the mobile OS of choice for users in less developed digital markets, especially.

In Asia-Pacific, there is a divide between markets that tilt heavily toward Android use and that do have a substantial number of iOS users among the smartphone population. According to Q3 2015 data from Near, an outright majority of female smartphone users that have interacted with the company’s geolocation platform have iPhones. The male smartphone audience in the country tilts toward Android.

A similar pattern exists in Hong Kong, where 41% of women and 24% of men have iPhones; Japan, where 59% of women and 35% of men have iPhones; and Singapore, where 60% of women and 43% of men have iPhones.

But in less-developed digital markets, the vast majority of all demographic groups have Android-based phones.

In Indonesia, for example, 95% of male smartphone users and 93% of female smartphone users have Android phones. In India, those figures are 95% and 94%, respectively. The Android-oriented skew is slightly less extreme in Malaysia, where 91% of men and 86% of women have a smartphone with Google’s OS. Similarly, in the Philippines, 91% of men and 85% of women had Android phones.

In all the markets with substantial numbers of iPhone users, the devices were also most popular among the 26-to-35 age group. Both younger and older smartphone users tended more to have Android phones.