Navigating Android: Market Share Report [MAY]

Editor’s Note: We’re excited to welcome Chris from NativeX, sharing his experiences and expertise in the tech industry!

It’s time for another round of Android market share data.

There weren’t any surprises this month, just a couple minor position swaps. Like the first three months of 2013, this report for April was dominated by Samsung.

Android Market Share: Top 10 Devices

As always this Android market share data is based on NativeX’s daily active users (DAUs) from mobile games, broken down by device and operating system. We provide this data to paint a clearer picture of the top gaming devices and operating systems, specific to mobile game developers.

As you can see below, there wasn’t a ton of movement in the pack.

Most notably, Samsung continued to dominate the charts with eight spots in the top ten devices. There were also four tablets gracing the top ten device list (all manufactured by Samsung) and they actually held decent positions in the chart, 3, 5, 8, and 9. Last year when I was doing research for the NativeX mobile QA department, I was lucky to find one tablet in the top 20.

Android tablets are becoming more popular as price and flexibility offer users a great second tablet or for many an alternative to the iPad. There are also other devices on the outside of this list waiting to jump in. The two that could slide in on time for next month’s report are the Samsung Galaxy S4 and the HTC One, both of which were knocking at the door of the top ten, just barely missing the list this month.

Android Market Share: Top 5 Operating Systems

Here is the breakdown of market share for Android OS based on the DAUs in our network. Again, this differs from the Android developer portal because we only include games in our count so the data is more relevant for Android game developers.

If you have any questions about this report or if you would like to learn more about how the NativeX Games Task Force is helping app developers turn their apps into successful businesses, send us an email.

2013 Predictions

As far as my 2013 predictions go, nothing really changed this month. I have two left to fulfill and it is looking like my fourth prediction will occur in the next couple of months.

-The Nexus 7 will continue to climb during January and overtake the Galaxy Tab 2 (7”) and won’t be challenged from another Android tablet this year.

-The Samsung Galaxy S3 will likely hold the top spot throughout 2013 with rumors of the S4 releasing in May and the majority of early adopters still enjoying their 2-year carrier contract with the S3

–Sony will fall off the charts completely and not recover another spot for the remainder of 2013.  Along with Sony, LG will fail to chart with a non-Nexus phone. For now the LG Motion is back on in the tenth spot but I expect it to fall off in June.

-HTC will be making a big push this year for new phones considering they lost market share last year. Expect to see them to replace one or two spots in the charts, quite possibly with the rumored M7.