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Android Statistics (2021)

Updated: November 15, 2021

Android is the most popular operating system in the world, with over 2.5 billion active users spanning over 190 countries.

Created by Andy Rubin as the open-source alternative to iPhone and Palm OS, Android quickly became the favourite operating system for most mobile manufacturers in the early 2010s.

With titans of the industry such as Samsung, LG, Motorola and HTC all launching phones running Android, it quickly became the most popular mobile OS, hitting over one billion active users by 2014.

As Android grew, so did Google’s control of the OS. Originally, manufacturer partners were able to customise most of the platform to their liking, however, Google has every year added more compulsory services and conditions with each year, which has ensured advantages for its own suite of apps.

Google Play has grown enormously in the past decade, reaching $38.6 billion in 2020. There were over 2.9 million apps available on the store in 2020, which were downloaded 108 billion times.

Android is the dominant platform in most countries, although it has had trouble surpassing Apple in Japan and the United States. In countries like Brazil, India, Indonesia, Iran and Turkey, it has over 85 percent market share.

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While Google has claimed more control over Android with each passing year, in China, the search giant has no control over the operating system. A host of Chinese companies operate third-party app stores on the Android platform, which account for 75 percent of all smartphone users in China.

We have collected data and statistics on Android OS. Read on below to find out more.

Android key statistics

• Android has over 2.8 billion active users, it has a global market share of 75 percent
• Android holds over 85% market share in Brazil, India, Indonesia, Turkey and Vietnam
• Over one billion Android smartphones were shipped last year
• Samsung is the largest Android smartphone manufacturer, followed by Huawei and Xiaomi

Android version market share

Google has struggled to get OEMs to update their smartphones at a quick pace, which has meant most updates rarely hit over 50 percent of Android users. Google’s 2019 update, Pie 9.0, was the first to reach over 35 percent of smartphones.

Android vendor market share

Samsung has held a lead in market share since the early days of Android and has continued to perform well, even as rivals HTC and LG have folded in recent years. Chinese manufacturers are responsible for over 55 percent of Android market share.

Android vendor market share in 2021 (%)

Android vendor market share 2015 to 2020 (%)

Year	Samsung	Xiaomi	Huawei	Oppo	Vivo	Motorola	LG	Other
2015	28.7	6.3	11	4.4	3.9	2.1	2.5	39.3
2016	25.7	9.7	13.6	8.9	8.1	2	2.3	28.3
2017	26.7	9	12.5	9.8	7.6	2	1.9	29.7
2018	25.9	12.3	18.6	10.7	9.8	1.8	2	17.8
2019	25.7	10.4	21.8	10.6	10.3	2.5	2.3	15.5
2020	28.1	12.2	17.1	9.9	8.2	2.7	2.2	18.6

Note: Market share fluctuates each quarter. Most values are an average of Q1 and Q3 of each year.

Sources: Counterpoint Research, Gartner, IDC

Android vs iOS market share

Android dominates in global market share, responsible for 71 percent of all smartphone usage in Q1 2021. Android has been falling slightly in market share in the past two years, as Apple’s iPhone 11 and 12 were both well received by customers.

Android vs iOS global market share (%)

Android vs iOS US market share (%)

Android has 38 percent market share in the United States as of Q1 2021, which has been falling ever since Q3 2019, when it had 45 percent market share. Apple has always been the most popular smartphone brand in the country.

Android vs iOS UK market share (%)

The UK has a higher percentage of iPhone users than most of Europe, which has made it one of the more competitive countries, with Android and iOS both fighting for the most market share. Apple has recently overtaken Android, with Android at 47 percent market share in Q1 2021.

Android users

Android has added more users every year since inception. Even though in more mature markets user growth has stagnated, Android has continued to grow at a remarkable rate through its popularity in developing countries. In Brazil, India, Indonesia, Turkey and Vietnam, Android has over 85 percent marketshare.

Year	Active users
2012	0.5 billion
2013	0.7 billion
2014	1 billion
2015	1.4 billion
2016	1.7 billion
2017	2 billion
2018	2.3 billion
2019	2.5 billion
2020	2.8 billion

Android yearly shipments

Even though Android continues to grow in active users, consumers started to buy phones at a slower rate starting in 2015. Android yearly shipments peaked in 2018, when OEM partners sold 1.33 billion units. There was a noticeable decline in 2020, which most manufacturers have tied to the coronavirus pandemic.

Year	Yearly shipments
2012	0.6 billion
2013	0.8 billion
2014	1 billion
2015	1.2 billion
2016	1.25 billion
2017	1.28 billion
2018	1.33 billion
2019	1.3 billion
2020	1.05 billion

Sources: IDC, Gartner, Strategy Analytics

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Mobile Application Development

Mobile application development is a process of creating software that will run on a mobile device. Such a difficult task requires time, skills, and a sufficient budget. However, even with an experienced team, it is not always possible to create something worthwhile since there are millions of applications, making it difficult to be notable among them. Every day developers create hundreds of applications: some gain popularity, bring income and benefit; others are limited to a narrow circle of users, not spreading en masse.

Today, every second person spends 5 hours a day on a smartphone. The current trend allows you to tune your business and profitably monetise the love for the Internet. In addition to advertising, the mobile application creates the image of the company, provides information about the target audience, and assesses the behavioural factors of buyers.

What is a mobile application

Over the past 10 years, the number of smartphones used has exceeded 2.5 billion. Every year, consumers spend $380 billion on new devices. Each of them has applications that simplify life, helping to count, communicate, and order a taxi or food.

A mobile app itself is application software developed for smartphones and tablets with various operating systems: iOS, Android, KaiOS, Harmony OS, Tizen, and others. In most cases, it requires access to the Internet if it is connected to remote resources.

Mobile operating systems

A mobile operating system (OS) is a software package that allows smartphones, tablets, and wearable gadgets to manage resources of a device itself and organise direct interaction with a user. Most mobile operating systems run only on certain hardware. For example, iOS is made for iPhones, and Android is used on Samsung, Google Pixel, LG, Nokia, and other smartphones. In 2019, they still maintained their positions:

You probably heard about Windows Mobile or maybe even used it. In the early 2000s, many PDAs and communicators had this Microsoft OS installed. In 2010, it was replaced by two OS versions: Windows Phone for smartphones and Windows RT for tablets. And in 2015, a unified version — Windows 10 Mobile — already appeared.

Few people heard of the KaiOS operating system, although it has already become a leader among the second tier. The system is a fork of Firefox OS based on Linux and designed for low-cost devices. Even though Google released Android Go (an optimised version of Android) for entry-level devices, KaiOS remains the leader in this segment.

Categories of useful applications

Given the current diversity in the market, it is difficult to provide an accurate classification. But we can conditionally list those acting as auxiliary tools. Although with proper promotion, they can become an independent project.

For business

There are specific and multipurpose business apps depending on the areas of activity. Businessmen appreciate universal, full-featured tools that help them easily manage their business and optimise work processes. For example, they choose applications that can do the following:

• operate with office documents;
• sort, store, and transfer data;
• provide information support on taxes and laws;
• plan a schedule and tasks;
• manage accounting and personnel;
• aggregate business news and events.

For marketing

Any company has clients and partners with whom it is necessary to establish feedback. Find out the needs of your audience by turning them into users of the company’s mobile application. Even simple promotional apps can competently advertise new products. Provide your marketers with tools that can do the following:

• fill blogs and communities with content;
• work with social networks;
• process images and videos;
• collect statistics and conduct analytics;
• track brand mentioning;
• send newsletters via messaging apps and other communication channels.

For personal use

An application becomes popular when it has functions useful and necessary for people. Your company can promote its brand through a non-profit app, so the application itself can become a marketing tool. Just give the world something truly necessary and gain universal recognition. The following kinds of applications will make your company an assistant in user’s personal life:

• educational apps, applications for mastering skills or learning languages;
• personality and psychological tests;
• converters, meters, counters, trackers;
• motivating, dietary, and sports apps;
• personal finance management and home accounting systems;
• task and shopping planners.

Applications are created based on specific needs. When it comes to professional or advertising use, then usually everything depends on the specifics of your business. However, in recent years, it often happens that the application does not supplement the business, but the business is built around the app.

Our company is also interested in such projects, especially if they are large-scale and designed for the international market. Contact us to discuss ordering a mobile application that will conquer the whole world!

How to make a mobile application popular

Each application is monetised in its way and is designed for a specific target audience. To make it popular and profitable, you first need to determine the following:

1. Which users may be interested in the application, what country they are from. What purchases users will make or what kind of advertising they will watch; what they will receive in return for the money and time spent.
2. How difficult it is to implement the necessary functions and options. This will affect the price of mobile application development. Even simple products can become profitable, not only complicated ones.
3. What bonuses users will receive; how the project is different from competitors. When drafting a model, it is worth considering the introduction of killer features.

The benefit depends on the type of activity, as well as the desired result. Startups will be able to conveniently notify investors of goals and current achievements, and companies will use applications to create an image. Entertaining and commercial projects will be able to sell ads or products inside.

Mobile application development technology

The properly selected architecture will save your time, effort, and finances. There are two main approaches to creating a mobile application: native and cross-platform ones. And the third one — progressive approach — is also developing now.

Native development is the creation of separate applications for each mobile platform. That is, you need to develop one application for iOS and another one for Android. Then the applications will be uploaded to the particular platform stores. These are the advantages of native apps:

1. Advanced design options.
2. Support for all smartphone features, including in-app purchases, access to location services or a camera, push notifications, and priority updates.
3. Fast, responsive, and reliable interface.

Twitter, Waze, and Pokemon Go are illustrative examples of the native approach.

Cross-platform development of mobile applications is the creation of a common code base for two platforms, with further translation of the code on each OS via an intermediate layer. These are the advantages of cross-platform apps:

1. A single code base and correct operation on all platforms, which allows us to simplify the logic and avoid possible errors.
2. Reducing the price and time of writing the code if you do not need to ensure a fit for each platform. The logic will be simple, and the user interface will remain minimalistic.

A progressive web application (PWA) brings together the best qualities of a mobile website and a native app. These are the advantages of progressive web apps:

1. No need for an intermediary (a store).
2. Development costs are lower than when using classical approaches.

Development trends

Before you start developing an application for mobile devices, ask yourself several questions: what are the aims of your app; what functions should it have; what is the target audience of your app? If it is difficult to choose, the simplest solution is to see what trends have formed in the development market. In 2019–2020 the following applications are in demand:

• apps based on blockchain technology;
• apps based on artificial intelligence and machine learning;
• apps with chatbots;
• instant apps;
• with augmented and virtual reality;
• for the Internet of things;
• with mobile payments, transfers, and money storage.

The functional part may be affected by new trends in user interface design:

• buttonless design;
• flat design;
• fluent design;
• material design;
• neumorphism.

After that, you can draw up your own or order the terms of reference for the application development. From here, your project will be created in the form you have chosen.

Mobile application stores

According to Statista forecasts, in 2020, the revenue of all mobile applications will amount to $581 billion, including $117 billion from in-built advertising. Application stores, or digital distribution platforms, can help achieve such indicators being crucial for promoting.

Apple App Store

Apple was the first to create an application store. Then, in July 2008, it was still part of the iTunes Store. Since then, the App Store remains the principal place where iOS users can find the right application.

The store contains 2.2 million different applications for smartphones, as well as Apple TV and Apple Watch products. By placing the application on the App Store, you will satisfy your already established audience and attract new users.

Google Play

Google launched its store in October 2008 under the name Android Market. After rebranding in March 2012, it is called Google Play, but it is still targeted at the market of Android devices.

This digital distribution platform offers 2.9 million apps. Despite the powerful built-in search engine, brands sometimes find out that their products are hiding in the search results or can be found by other requests. But anyway, by uploading your app to Google Play, you can reckon your Android audience or customers will be satisfied.

Alternatives

Many manufacturers of mobile devices have found that they can work more closely with their audience offering them their stores with applications for smartphones and other devices.

Samsung Galaxy Store

In September 2009, Samsung Electronics launched the Samsung Apps service, which was renamed the Galaxy Store in March 2019. The manufacturer pre-installs the mobile version of its store on Android devices. And the web version of the store contains products not only for the Android OS but also for Bada, Tizen, Windows Mobile.

LG SmartWorld

In October 2011, LG Electronics also launched its store — SmartWorld, which is installed on phones manufactured by the company. It also created a separate version for LG TVs called Content Store.

Huawei AppGallery

Huawei Technologies opened its application store in 2011. First, it was focused on the Chinese market, and in April 2018, it became available worldwide. Although the landing page and the dashboard are localised in 9 languages, the names and descriptions of most applications are presented only in Chinese.

Amazon Appstore

Amazon, the e-commerce giant, is not far behind its direct and indirect competitors. In 2011, the company created the store as an application for Android and Fire OS, and in 2014, it became available for BlackBerry 10. This solution helped to save loyal customers from searching for digital products in third-party stores.

App Store and Google Play application rankings

The Apple App Store and Google Play are the two largest app distribution channels for iOS and Android that offer you reach a global audience. However, as the competition grows inside the stores, it becomes increasingly difficult for developers to ensure the visibility of applications hosted there.

Launching using different digital distribution platforms may fit your market entry strategy if you want to reach a specific audience. Knowing the target audience of the store will allow you to upload the created new product with confidence that your app will find its users.

Reviewers compiled new ratings, and we would like to highlight the top 5 most downloaded and top 5 most profitable applications in 2019. The statistics for both stores are considered.

Top	Most people downloaded the following apps:	Users spent the most money in the following apps:
1	Facebook Messenger	Tinder
2	Facebook	Netflix
3	WhatsApp	Tencent Video
4	TikTok	iQIYI
5	Instagram	YouTube

Where to order a mobile application

If you cannot write the code on your own, find a professional who creates applications for mobile phones. However, the following questions can emerge: which specialist to choose? Do you need to hire staff? Should you hire individual freelancers to work remotely? Or is it better to entrust such an important task to a turnkey mobile app development studio?

Forming an entire development department may not be an appropriate solution. Searching for freelancers on marketplaces, checking their competence, and then constantly monitoring execution is also a heavy burden. When you need a serious approach, you can’t neglect the quality, and the process must not stretch for many months, it is better to contact Polygant, a mobile app development company.

Cost of developing a mobile application

Only a qualified development team can competently approach a complex process and complete tasks without breaking deadlines. Being experienced professionals, we will create a unique business model and a friendly user interface. We will also help to place the application in stores and promote it according to the marketing plan.

Developing a mobile application from scratch consists of the following stages:

1. Writing technical specifications (if you do not have one) — from 18 hours.
2. Business analysis and specification — from 20 hours.
3. UI and UX design — about 35 hours.
4. Back-end development — over 40 hours, depending on the required functionality of the application and the number of platforms (OS).
5. Front-end development — more than 30 hours.
6. Testing — about 20 hours, depending on the number of platforms and functionality.

Based on these data, the approximate cost of an MVP starts at $20,000 and further depends on factors that complicate the work. Please note that after the development is completed, the application must be supported, and such service is paid separately.

Further support after release

It is impossible to quickly create a mobile application that immediately turns out to be ideal. Therefore, developers often use feature-driven development (or another Agile methodology) to quickly provide core functionality. Agile dramatically speeds up the release, helping companies adapt to a changing market.

After launch, if the product is successful, you need to track reviews, collect information about errors, and analyse problems. Later, it is necessary to develop and provide new functions in accordance with the new data obtained in the previous step. After the official launch, maintenance and support are all you need.

If you achieve the result first with Agile, maintenance costs may be higher than prototyping. Specialists prefer this methodology when it is necessary to develop a product by proving or refuting the marketing hypothesis, and, at the same time, get the first profit almost immediately.

And using the traditional Waterfall methodology, you can calculate the estimated annual maintenance costs with a fixed percentage, which is approximately 15–20% of the cost of developing a mobile application. Large companies prefer Waterfall, because their business processes are documented, and their management develops marketing, management, and production plans.

We are experienced developers

Polygant has been professionally creating mobile applications for 8 years. We know how to develop a mobile application that will help customers find you:

Details about the development for iOS.

Details about the development for Android.

We can also develop mobile games,

as well as secure messaging apps.

When we get to work, we do not neglect quality due to limited time or budget. We always try our best. Make a request via the contact form, and we will specify how much it costs to develop a mobile application.

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