Android continues to grow at Apple's expense

Android is continuing to gain market share at Apple's expense. New numbers from Kantar Worldpanel show Android grew to 65.5 percent of the smartphone market in the US during the first quarter of 2016. Android is faring even better in Europe and China, where it has 75.6 and 77 percent of the market, respectively.

Android's market share tends to bounce around a bit, usually dipping after a new iPhone is announced, but the general trend for several years now has been up. This has led Digital Trends to declare that the "sun is setting on the era of the smartphone" as phones become like PCs were a decade ago. By the early to mid-2000s, Windows had become so dominant that PC had been almost synonymous with a machine running the Microsoft's ubiquitous OS. Apple even differentiated its computers in an ad campaign that laughed at PCs.

Yet, Windows has prevailed because it runs on almost any hardware people want to put it on—even an Apple Watch. Google is now doing the same thing to Apple in smartphones with its open-source OS. Since Android is open source, however, anyone can acquire and modify it for free however they like. Google's primary means of making money on Android through Google Play is not a sure thing since Amazon has its own version of Android selling stuff through the Amazon Appstore. China has a plethora of app stores to choose from as the Android ecosystem has flourished in spite of Google services being prohibited in the country.

The Google ban in China has in some ways spurred innovation. There are a lot of creative skins and modifications to the OS happening in China that are not being done in other markets, where many consumers have preferred to defer to Google's judgment about how the OS should look and operate. Most Android skins outside China have reached closer to working like stock Android.

Digital Trends sees a world in which smartphone hardware finds success, hitting the particular niche market it needs. Some may prefer power processors or large screens, whereas others might want something smaller or choose not to pay for a high-end processor. The advantage with Android is that makers have thepower to decide how to cater to specific markets. Google services still remain immensely popular beyond China, though. Those selling smartphones outside the country may still want to make sure the product ships with Google Play installed.