It is well known that Android has a lion’s share of the smartphone market as far as mobile operating system goes, but Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai quantified the value stating that as many as 1.4 billion monthly active users.
This number translates to a whopping one fifth of the global population and if we take a pause and think about it, it is really a great achievement.
Though Google’s share in the actual hardware market may not be even noticeable, companies including Samsung, Xiaomi, Micromax, HTC, Huawei and OnePlus have all chipped in to help Google garner a huge share of the smartphone OS market.
The numbers were revealed by Pichai while unveiling the latest in Nexus series of smartphones – Nexus 5X and Nexus 6P. Countries where Android has seen huge growth include Indonesia, India, Vietnam and Thailand with more and more first time smartphone buyers opting for Android based devices owing to their low price points.
The higher the market share, the higher the amount of money Google will make from advertisements, app sales, movie and music purchase and rentals among other things. However, if we consider China here with an estimated 400 million Android smartphone users, Google isn’t making a single penny from any of the app sales or services because Google Play isn’t available in China.
Another possible issue is fragmentation. Though more and more smartphone vendors are making a point to provide regular upgrades for their handsets soon after Google releases a new Android version, there is the problem of low-end hardware that isn’t compatible with latest OS.
Lawsuits are another problem for Android as more and more countries have started investigating Google for possible antitrust violations through its Android OS.
