The following mobile phone facts and statistics deliver an update on the status of global mobile OS trends and security and overall market share among various mobile OS platforms.
While smartphones have been popular among consumers for over a decade, mobile operating system software continues to see consistent improvements and features that relate to global technology trends. Some trends, like facial recognition, significant battery savings and universal file transferring have resulted in features released onto both the Android and Apple mobile OS platforms in 2018-19.
Recommended reading: Mobile Operating Systems (Mobile OS) Explained.
Though it is essential for a mobile OS to offer global technology trends, it is also crucial they follow modern security practices and ethics and deliver a safe experience to all users. In a world of competitive software development, it is impossible to survive should these consumer demands not be met — a fact that is proven when analyzing the state of the global mobile OS market share.
10 Fun Things to Know About Mobile OS
The following facts and statistics deliver an update on the status of global mobile OS trends and security, overall market share among various mobile OS platforms, and recent historical milestones among mobile operating systems while analyzing fun facts in regards to their origins.
1. According to StatCounter, as of June 2019, Google’s Android mobile operating system held 76.03 percent of the global mobile OS market share, leaving Apple’s IOS at 22.04 percent with Windows struggling at 0.21 percent.
2. On January 3, 2019, Microsoft announced that it would no longer supporting the Windows 10 Mobile operating system for Windows phones. Users of the Windows 10 Mobile OS will have until December 10th, 2019 to continue using their device with peace of mind, but after this date the device will be prone to security threats. Many call this the inevitable death of the Windows Phone, as Microsoft hasn t expressed any interest in moving forward with the Windows phone or its mobile OS counterpart.
3. When comparing popularity among mobile operating systems geographically, DeviceAtlas notes that Apple’s IOS holds the majority of consumers in the United States, Canada, Australia, and Saudi Arabia. Android, however, dominates a much larger market of consumers, claiming the majority of countries in Asia, Europe, and South America.
4. Due to its much more immense popularity and market share, Google’s Android mobile operating system is the most targeted mobile OS in the world for malware infections. Nokia’s 2017 Threat Intelligence Report revealed that as of 2017, 68 percent of all mobile devices infected with malware in the past year were running Android, with Microsoft’s Windows trailing at 28 percent and Apple’s IOS at the bottom with only 3 percent.
5. Apple and Google have very different opinions on what is allowed in their respective App stores. Apple personally oversees all IOS applications before entering the App Store, ensuring the applications have limited access to other apps within the IOS operating system once installed. Google, however, is more relaxed, offering developers an open-source environment where anybody can submit an app to the Google Play Store. In 2017, Norton reports that a fake WhatsApp application was uploaded to the Google Play Store and downloaded over one million times, infecting all installation devices.
6. As of 2017, mobile smartphone operating systems now have the capability of allowing users to unlock their devices using facial recognition technology, dependant on the hardware being used. The first primary consumer product allowing facial recognition was Samsung’s Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus, however, it was later revealed this technology could be “hacked” by scanning a person’s facial photo instead, allowing access to the secured device. In the final quarter of 2017, Apple released the iPhone X with its new facial recognition software called FaceID, fixing all the issues of competitor Samsung s first facial recognition technology.
7. Google’s Android mobile OS is based on the open-source Linux software system. At the time of Android’s initial development, the OS was intended to be used as a digital camera platform, not a smartphone operating system. Usage of the Linux kernel allows access to the code for many different chip architectures and hardware drivers, enabling a large variety of technologies to run on the Android operating system successfully.
8. Android was not always owned by Google. The Android mobile operating system was first developed by the company Android Inc, established in October 2003 by Andy Rubin, Rich Miner, Chris White, and Nick Sears. The first fully functioning Android operating system was developed in 2004, later purchased by Google in 2005 for $50 million USD., eventually transforming into the dominating platform used today.
9. For many years users have been restricted when using Apple s IOS operating system, as it prevents file transferring via a USB connection such as a USB Stick. As of June 24th, 2019, Apple has released native support for USB, SD, and SMB server file transferring on iPad s that are using the new operating system iPadOS. These features are all made possible with the newly released Files app. One can only hope we will soon see these features expanded to the IOS platform.
10. While Android has had this feature available for over a year with the release of Android Pie 9.0 in 2018, Apple has recently released a new “Dark Mode” feature on all Apple devices with the recent launch of the IOS 13 operating system on June 3rd, 2019. Dark Mode eliminates the majority of idle white light that chews up battery life among mobile devices, giving the screen a more dim and dark appearance that enables users to focus more on content.
This article was originally published on July 17, 2019
