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11/22/2024 08:18:13 am

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Android May Have Reached Market Saturation At 85% Share

Google's open-source Android OS may have reached market saturation point, according to several mobile analysts who don't believe that Android will surpass its current 85 percent hold of the mobile market.

Android has had a steady rise ever since 2010, when the mobile OS started gathering speed against Apple's iOS. Samsung has been the biggest provider of market share for Android, selling 60 to 90 million smartphones every year since 2012.

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At the last Google I/O, Android hit 1.1 billion users worldwide, including a forked version of Android like the Kindle Fire. China has given a lot of life to Android, alongside India and other large developing nations, who cannot afford high-end smartphones.

Behind Android's large lead in the mobile market, iOS sits at 12 percent. Apple holds similar numbers in the desktop battle, where Microsoft's Windows has 92.3 percent share on desktop and Mac OS X holds 7 percent. This is due to Apple only pushing out a few products a year and not licensing their software to any third party or clone manufacturers.

In third sits Windows Phone, Microsoft's mobile OS, at 3 percent. The last two years have been rather steady for Windows Phone, which is not a good thing, since they're still in third and cannot surpass iOS, even though they license their software to third party manufacturers.

Even with the market slowdown, Android is not expected to drop anytime soon - in fact - most analysts say Android will stay at 85 percent for a good few years, unless Apple manages to soar ahead in sales or Windows Phone actually becomes a viable alternative to Android and iOS.

Forked versions of Android are also down year-on-year, with more Chinese manufacturers adopting Android with a skin, instead of forking the service and changing the stock apps available. The stock apps are the only way Google makes money on Android - meaning Kindle Fire and forked versions essentially take all revenue away from Google.

Google should announce 1.5 billion devices running Android by the time Google I/O 2015 begins in June.

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