Despite its recent and well publicised deal with Samsung, Google has cause for concern about its ability to corral all the players in the Android ecosystem.
A new report by ABI Research reveals that not only are one in four Android devices now shipping with forked versions of the operating system which don’t offer Google’s services, but those forked systems are also the key drivers of Android’s growth.
(Image source ABI Research)
It’s a big deal that’s getting bigger. Of the billion smartphones that shipped worldwide in 2013, close to 780 million of them were Android.
In the giant emerging markets of China and India however the forked operating systems are proving very popular. “Forked Android or AOSP accounted for 25 per cent market share with 71 million unit shipments, as opposed to certified Android’s share of 52%, of a total of 77% market share, " according to the ABI Report. Indeed forked systems grew 137 per cent year on year)
Nick Spencer, ABI Research senior practice director, mobile devices said, “The growth of AOSP is significant for Android’s owner Google, because AOSP does not offer Google’s services (due to their unavailability in China), impacting Google’s ability to monetize the Android ecosystem.”
The report also notes that Apple’s iOS regained market share sequentially following the iPhone 5s launch, growing from 15 per cent in Q3 2013 to 18 per cent in Q4, but that is still down year-on-year from 23 per cent in Q4 2012 as emerging markets accounted for most of the growth.
Reprinted with permission of Which-50
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