Android devices hold 85% of the smartphone market share in 2016

A new report from IDC shows that Android device holds 85% of the market share. The report also shows a rise in LTE device adoption from 61% to 77%.

 

[plnelson]

It's weird the way in tech you get these lopsided near-monopolies. If I'm in the market for an airline or a car or a camera, or a washing machine or clothes or fast-food there are a bunch of more-or-less-equal rivals.

But in the new tech industries lots of categories have some 900 pound gorilla and whoever is number two is way back in the dust somewhere. Google dominates search, Bing etc is just a spec on the horizon. Amazon dominates online retail - I have no idea who #2 is. YouTube dominates video sharing; I personally prefer Vimeo but it's a teensy niche. Facebook dominates social media with 1.2 billion daily active users; I have no idea who #2 is. Windows dominates desktop operating systems, etc etc.

And then we have Android. As an Android developer I should be happy but it's so fragmented that it's no fun to develop for the broad market. Luckily I do mostly industrial apps targeting very specific pieces of embedded hardware. I'm retiring soon and was thinking of switching to iPhone but Apple seems to be slipping behind and anyway when they got rid of the headphone jack it was all over.

Should we be worried if one company is so much bigger than their rivals? Would it be better for consumers for the competition to be more equal? Is it bad if even a super-rich company like Microsoft can't overcome barriers of entry in some market like search or phones? Is it bad if one company (Google) dominates multiple segments - Search, video-sharing, and mobile OS? (and soon, self-driving cars?) Interesting questions for economists and philosophers.