Page 12 - index

RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

BI Intelligence says the
race between iOS and

Android continues, just

as Microsoft still does

not seem to play a

relevant role

According to a report from BI Intelligence one billion The BI Intelligence report states: “Smartphone adoption
smartphones were sold last year and the 4th quarter rises worldwide, the major smartphone platform war
had been one of the most successful one with 35% continues to play out between Apple and Google, while
growth over the previous year. In 2015 and coming Microsoft still aims to grow its small slice of total ship-
years an annual growth rate of 16% is expected, so that ments. On the vendor side, Samsung has tried to fend
in 2020 3.4 billion devices should be sold, since experts off pressure from low-cost vendors out of China, while
assume that cheap smartphones are constantly replac- also succumbing to pressure from Apple on the high-
ing feature phones. end of the market.”

Apple clearly gained ground with the iPhone 6, at the Quite obviously, growth continues to be driven by
expense of Samsung, and the race between iOS and emerging markets, but China is already maturing and
Android generally seems to continue, just as Microsoft India is becoming the new growth engine. BI Intelli-
still does not seem to play a relevant role. However, the gence, expects shipments in the Indian market to grow
global platform wars are playing out, with Apple able to roughly 31% per year on average through 2020, com-
push back against Android dominance on the backs of pared to 8% average annual growth in China.
new device launches. After the release of the iPhone 6
line, Apple was able to grow market share in the fourth For more information, please go to BI Intelligence’s
quarter by 8 percentage points from a year earlier. website. ◊
By MediaBUZZ

12 Asian eMarketing October 2015: Mobile Marketing
12