Animoca Data: the most popular Android phones and OS versions in Singapore
We continue our series in which we reveal the most popular Android phones and OS versions. Today it’s the turn of Singapore, affluent city-state and once-mighty bastion of Apple’s iPhone. If this is the first time you come across our data, please read the previous post for some background.
The goal of this exercise is to provide some granular insights into the world of Android – not to pit Android against iOS – but we do have to comment on the dramatic shift towards Android that is underway in Singapore. A little over a month ago, Reuters reported:
In Singapore, Apple’s products were so dominant in 2010 that more devices here ran its iOS operating system per capita than anywhere else in the world.
But StatCounter gs.statcounter.com, which measures traffic collected across a network of 3 million websites, calculates that Apple’s share of mobile devices in Singapore - iPad and iPhone – declined sharply last year. From a peak of 72 percent in January 2012, its share fell to 50 percent this month, while Android devices now account for 43 percent of the market, up from 20 percent in the same month last year.
The more we look around, the more we see Samsung. Will the Korean titan dominate Singapore as it rules so many other markets? Well, if you checked the Reuters story above you probably already suspect the answer, but here is what the Android picture looks like from our detail-rich point of view.
All data obtained from individual users of Animoca games located in Singapore, who used Google Play, and who played an Animoca game between January 15 and February 15, 2013. Tablets are excluded.
Top Android phones in Singapore (Animoca network, Jan 15 – Feb 15, 2013)
There’s absolutely no question that Samsung is (by far) the dominant Android force in Singapore. 6 of the top 10 devices are Samsung, with two entries by Sony and two by HTC. It’s interesting how similar the above list is to the Hong Kong data: in both markets exactly the same Samsung models (albeit rearranged) hold the top half of the list, then the Sony Xperia Arc S appears in 6th place, followed by more Samsung and finally the rest of the pack.
Singapore shows slightly more brand variation than Hong Kong (where 8 out of the top 10 devices were from Samsung), however in Singapore the Samsung Galaxy S2 makes up 20.6% of all Android phones. In terms of relative market share, that’s significantly higher than the leading Android phone in Hong Kong (the Samsung Galaxy Note 2, with 14% share of that market).
Top Android OS versions in Singapore (Animoca network, Jan 15 – Feb 15, 2013)
Android 4.x makes up 52.8% of Android phone OS in Singapore, which is encouraging but not quite as modern as Hong Kong, where 58% of Android phones run Android 4.x. The aging Gingerbread is in second place, finding itself squeezed in the middle of an Ice Cream Sandwich.
Jelly Bean comes fourth in Singapore – a marked difference from Hong Kong, where jelly Bean was the number one Android version (see Hong Kong data).
Although Singapore and Hong are relatively small next to large markets, these ultra-modern cities are significant as trend predictors, at least for wealthy and developed nations. It’s looking increasingly like a Samsung world.
More to come as we continue to drill into our usage data.