Worldwide market share of mobile phones operating systems (OS) has narrowed down to three, Android which has 81.4% of the worldwide market, while iOS comes in second with 14.8% and Windows Phone comes in last at a meager 0.7% [Wikipedia]. There are a plethora of little known mobile phone operating systems so that their combined worldwide market share amounts to 3.4%. Since Windows Phone OS has such a small worldwide usage and you probably haven’t heard of the little known mobile phone OS systems, we will be focusing on Android and iOS. The numbers are staggering since mobile phone users worldwide total 4.61 billion [Statistica]. That is over half the number of humans on the planet! So Android users worldwide total more than 3.75 billion while iOS users worldwide total 682 million.
This is where upgrading your mobile phone OS comes in. Android users are slow to upgrade their mobile phone while iOS users surpass in this regard using the latest mobile operating system. Here is the breakdown.
Android
Android versions 5 thru 7 are still being supported with updates (versions 1 thru 4 are not supported). 25% of all Android users are still using version 4 (Jelly Bean which is NOT supported with updates) and have not upgraded. 34% are using version 5 (Lollipop) which is being supported with updates. 25% are using version 6 (Marshmallow), while according to Android Developer, a meager 0.3 % are using the latest version 7 (Nougat) as of September 2016!
iOS
The story is quite different with iOS users who update their phones. iOS has released ten versions in comparison to Android’s seven. Here is the breakdown of how iOS users update their iPhones. As TechCrunch puts it, “Apple’s newest mobile operating system, iOS 10, has seen faster adoption than any other OS version, according to data released by mobile marketing firm Fiksu. Currently, iOS 10 is installed on 66.7 percent of active devices its data shows, roughly a month after its launch. That means the majority of iOS device users are now running the latest OS – which is something of a surprise, given that early adoption was slower than usual.” So 32% of iOS users are not updating to the latest version.
Why Update Your Mobile Phone?
The chief reason to update your mobile operating system is security. Hackers are increasing their attacks on mobile phones and who do the hackers chiefly attack? It doesn’t take rocket science to figure that one. The second reason to update is you get more bells and whistles. Android users are notorious for not updating, while iOS users are known for keeping up with the latest version. Updating is the wise course to take, for example, read our posts on Android Users Should Be Aware Of New Drammer Hack and Mobile Users Running Old IOS Versions Vulnerable To Fake Apps. Connectech cannot emphasize this enough, update all your mobile phones to the latest version (also you should update all your devices to the latest version). If you need assistance, contact us.