Smartphone market share information is very useful to developers as a guide to craft a mobile platform strategy, but understanding how to apply the data to such a strategy can be a bit confusing at times. The following will try to add some insight into the current numbers by adding some perspective behind each data source.

What you will see is that globally the Android platform is shipping more devices than iOS — 87 percent to 11 percent — in the U.S., things get a little closer: 51 percent to 42 percent in favor of Android when looking at mobile subscribers, and web usage is dead even at 44 percent to 44 percent. When it comes to app usage and user engagement numbers, iOS begins to edge out Android 89 percent to 76 percent. What is consistent across the data sources is that both Microsoft and Blackberry are clearly not in the race at all.