According to a report on the evening of August 8, Beijing time, Horace Dediu, an analyst at American research firm Asymco, released a report on Thursday stating that the number of Android users in the U.S. has declined for the first time.
Data from research firm comScore shows that among the 142 million smartphone users in the U.S., Android's market share is 52%, which equates to 73.84 million users using Android phones.
comScore's data released last month showed that among the 141 million smartphone users in the U.S., Android's market share was 52.4%, meaning there were 73.88 million users using Android phones.
Dediu said: "The gap between these two sets of data is not significant and falls within an acceptable margin of error, so it cannot yet prove that Android's market share in the U.S. is declining. However, Android's peak growth period has passed, and this situation has persisted for some time."
Dediu also noted that although Android's market share stopped growing about a year ago, due to the overall increase in smartphone users, Android continued to attract new users. In the past few months, however, due to slow growth in smartphone users, Android experienced its first decline in user numbers.
Jay Yarow, editor of the U.S. tech blog BusinessInsider, said that all major carriers in the U.S. are now subsidizing the price of the iPhone, making it comparable to Android phones, which has helped the iPhone gain market share.
Globally, however, the iPhone remains expensive and the number of carriers offering subsidies is limited, leading to Android continuing to gain market share. According to IDC data, Android holds a global market share of as high as 80%.
Yarow stated that while the iPhone's success in the U.S. is worth celebrating, it does not change the overall picture; Apple still needs to gain market share in other regions globally. (By Li Ming)