Mobile OS usage splits the world (chart)
Where do you think Apple's iPhone is the most popular? Where does Nokia's Symbian phones dominate? How is it going for Android in different parts of the world? What about Blackberry? — We're going to answer all of those questions and more in this article …
Context & Ripple Effects
The regional picture matters because 2010's US-centric headlines told only part of the story: back in January, Symbian handsets still ranked second only to the iPhone overall, but by October Nielsen had Android as the most popular operating system among recent US smartphone buyers. Royal Pingdom's chart reframes both findings geographically — asking not which OS is winning, but where each one wins.
First-order effects
- Nokia, Apple, Google, and RIM each get a map of their actual strongholds: Symbian's dominance, the iPhone's popularity pockets, Android's variance, and BlackBerry's standing are all region-specific rather than global rankings.
Second-order effects
- Developers and handset marketers now have a data-backed case for weighting platform investment by region instead of treating 'the smartphone market' as one battlefield — pushing Android resources toward markets where its momentum among new buyers shows up.
Third-order effects
- If the regional split holds, the industry narrative shifts from a single global OS race to parallel regional races, making per-market measurement from firms like Nielsen the strategic input that decides where OEMs and carriers commit.
The trend: Smartphone OS competition in 2010 is fragmenting into region-by-region battles, with each platform dominant somewhere rather than anywhere.