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Fascinating overview of mobile operating system market share - but is it real?
Those nice folks at icrossing have updated their infographic summarising mobile operating systems all over the world.
It is a great visual image. I use it often. BUT BEWARE ? it is easy to read too much into it. The same old problems with mobile stats apply here.
The stats this is based on all come from one source ? statcounter. And statcounter does exactly what it says on the tin. They offer analytics services to millions of websites. If you use their services to track your site, your visitors contribute to these stats. (but if you don?t, they don?t!)
If you want to dip into the statcounter mobile stats yourself, they are free to access, and very interesting.
But it does mean that these stats are NOT a real assessment of who is buying which phone. Nor is it an assessment of which mobile devices are dominating in each market. Nor is it a real assessment of which phones are using mobile data all over the world. Instead, it is a measure of the percentage of hits on statcounter-tracked sites made by each type of phone.
So ? to use an extreme case: If the only African website that happened to use statcounter was an Android developer site, it would show Africa as almost 100% Android when in actual fact the dominant phone in the entire continent is Nokia!
Further exceptions:
(I am by no means belittling either statcounter or icrossing here. Statcounter are very clear about what their data is based on, and icrossing are clear about their source. It is just healthy to understand what the stats are really saying)
- Mobile Economy 2013
I've just got my hands on the video used to open Mobile World Congress 2013The first half is a full volume, fun romp through the massive growth of mobile over the past 20 years, and some predictions for the next 5. Well worth a watch. Some great stats...
- Mobile Stats For 2010 And 2011
I can?t help but be bowled over when I try to get my head around exactly how many people are doing useful tasks on their phones. There are always a flurry of stylish YouTube presentations around this time of year, showcasing the ?growth of mobile? ?...
- What Is This Android Thing?
You may have heard the word Android being mentioned recently around the mobile phone world, well here is a quick post on what the fuss is all about. Android is a new-ish Operating System (OS) that has been developed by around 50 big names across the device...
- Quick Guide To Low Cost Ict Devices For 3rd World
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- Psp, Tv, Mp3, Pda, Mobile Phones: Can We Really Put Learning Onto Them All?
How do we cope with supporting real, valid, mobile learning on a huge range of devices? The more time I spend surrounded by mobile learners, the more this question comes back to haunt me. We have used many different approaches and devices already, but...
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Mobile market share 2011 ? really?
Fascinating overview of mobile operating system market share - but is it real?
Those nice folks at icrossing have updated their infographic summarising mobile operating systems all over the world.
It is a great visual image. I use it often. BUT BEWARE ? it is easy to read too much into it. The same old problems with mobile stats apply here.
The stats this is based on all come from one source ? statcounter. And statcounter does exactly what it says on the tin. They offer analytics services to millions of websites. If you use their services to track your site, your visitors contribute to these stats. (but if you don?t, they don?t!)
If you want to dip into the statcounter mobile stats yourself, they are free to access, and very interesting.
But it does mean that these stats are NOT a real assessment of who is buying which phone. Nor is it an assessment of which mobile devices are dominating in each market. Nor is it a real assessment of which phones are using mobile data all over the world. Instead, it is a measure of the percentage of hits on statcounter-tracked sites made by each type of phone.
So ? to use an extreme case: If the only African website that happened to use statcounter was an Android developer site, it would show Africa as almost 100% Android when in actual fact the dominant phone in the entire continent is Nokia!
Further exceptions:
- statcounter doesn?t track WAP sites, yet most of the huge rise in mobile banking and mobile data use in Africa and India is driven by this technology.
- most of the tracked sites are designed for big screens, which skews the mobile users towards those using powerful (smart)phones, in countries with fast, cheap wireless data.
(I am by no means belittling either statcounter or icrossing here. Statcounter are very clear about what their data is based on, and icrossing are clear about their source. It is just healthy to understand what the stats are really saying)
- Mobile Economy 2013
I've just got my hands on the video used to open Mobile World Congress 2013The first half is a full volume, fun romp through the massive growth of mobile over the past 20 years, and some predictions for the next 5. Well worth a watch. Some great stats...
- Mobile Stats For 2010 And 2011
I can?t help but be bowled over when I try to get my head around exactly how many people are doing useful tasks on their phones. There are always a flurry of stylish YouTube presentations around this time of year, showcasing the ?growth of mobile? ?...
- What Is This Android Thing?
You may have heard the word Android being mentioned recently around the mobile phone world, well here is a quick post on what the fuss is all about. Android is a new-ish Operating System (OS) that has been developed by around 50 big names across the device...
- Quick Guide To Low Cost Ict Devices For 3rd World
For several years, those nice people at infoDev / World Bank have been keeping a (slowly aging) list of excellent, low cost technology cheap and robust enough to be used in the developing world. Great list ? but almost impossible to keep uptodate....
- Psp, Tv, Mp3, Pda, Mobile Phones: Can We Really Put Learning Onto Them All?
How do we cope with supporting real, valid, mobile learning on a huge range of devices? The more time I spend surrounded by mobile learners, the more this question comes back to haunt me. We have used many different approaches and devices already, but...