Android Triumphs Against iOS in Southeast Asia Market

According to an Ericsson ConsumerLab report, via Tech Republic, Android is the predominant OS used by 31 percent of smartphone users living in Southeast Asia, Australia, and New Zealand, followed by iOS and Blackberry with 19 percent and 10 percent respectively. But once you take Australia and New Zealand out of the picture - and zoom in on Singapore, Indonesia, and Vietnam - we see that mobile OS of choice isn’t actually Android:

It seems that Singaporeans love Apple products so much, as almost half of the country’s smartphone users use iOS, while Android accounts for more than a quarter of users in second place. The same can’t be said in Indonesia - because iOS and Android users are the minority there with only 2 percent and 10 percent respectively.

The mobile software of choice for Indonesians is Blackberry, along with Symbian, with 27 percent and 10 percent. Both iOS and Android take the silver medal in Vietnam with 21 percent for both of them, beaten by Symbian with 26 percent. Inmobi might not agree with the result though as it has published its own report on the Indonesian platform landscape a couple of months ago based on the company’s ad impression. The report stated that both Nokia and Symbian OS dominated the market, with Android having the fastest growth, there was no mention of Blackberry OS.

If you’re wondering what the figures might be for. China and Japan, the infographic provided by App Annie might help. The infographic shows that both China and Japan are in the top three countries for iOS downloads, and no Asian countries made it to top three in terms of most downloads on Google Play, which is for Android platforms.

The report also shows what people use their smartphones for. Singaporeans, Malaysians, and Indonesians have the same answer for this: SMS. This activity accounts for more than 90 percent of usage in all three countries. Internet savvy Singaporeans then use their phones to also browse the internet, and do their emails, both accounting for 82 percent and 75 percent. While Malaysians and Indonesians prefer to simply browse social networks and make phone calls with their smartphones. In Malaysia, 69 percent love smartphones for social media usage, and 67 percent to make phone calls. While in Indonesia, the phone calls usage account for 71 percent, and 57 percent for social network browsing and sharing.

[Source: Tech Republic, picture: norebbo.com]