If you want to start an irrational argument there are lot of ways to kick one off if you’re a techie type. Mac vs Windows. SQL Server vs Oracle. But the biggest tech rivalry at the moment is between iOS and Android. Which platform is the fastest? Ookla, who bring us the Speedtest app and service, looked at the data they have collected through their Speedtest tool and come up with some interesting insights.
What’s interesting is that the answer as to which is faster out of Android and iOS seems to depend on where you are. Ookla surveys almost 130 countries through Speedtest. They found Android was faster in Iraq, South Africa, Mongolia, Hong Kong and Kuwait. But iOS won in Nigeria, Kenya, Bangladesh and Japan.
Android’s best showings
Android devices saw a faster mean download than those on iOS in 25 of the countries we surveyed. Android download speeds were 24.9% higher than those on iOS in Iraq, 23.9% in South Africa, 19.0% in Mongolia, 17.2% in Hong Kong and 12.8% in Kuwait.
Where iOS wins
On the other hand, when iOS devices are faster, they’re a lot faster. There are 60 countries on our list where the mean download speed on iOS is more than 10% higher than that on Android. Highlights include: Thailand where mean speed for iOS results was 60.5% faster than those over Android, Nigeria (51.7%), Kenya (43.4%), Bangladesh (41.5%) and Japan (38.3%).
In some cases, like the US and Canada, performance between the two platforms is similar: 46.56Mbps for Android in Canada versus 45.4Mbps for iOS. In the United States, Android performance is 29.26Mbps versus 27.27Mbps for iOS.
Apple dominates
With only 28 different models of iPhone in our results and 1,983 different types of Android phones, math is on Apple’s side when it comes to ranking for top devices. The iPhone 7 takes the top spot in 72 countries, including Brazil, Germany, Italy, Russia, Saudi Arabia and the United Kingdom. The iPhone 6 leads the list in 12 countries, including China, Malaysia and Thailand. Georgia was the only country whose most common device was the iPhone 5.
Android wins for diversity
While only 16 countries showed an Android device as the most common phone in our data, it was refreshing to see a wide number of brand names. The Samsung Galaxy S7 topped the list in Croatia, Israel and Peru. The Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge was the leading device in Honduras, Pakistan and Tunisia. The Samsung Galaxy S8 was the most popular device in Serbia.
Six countries showed the Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 as their most popular device, including Bangladesh, Belarus, Greece, India, Indonesia and Ukraine. The Xiaomi Redmi 4X was the most common device in Kyrgyztan. In Finland the most common device in our results was the OnePlus 3T. In Algeria it was the Oppo F1s.
The diversity of manufacturers increases as we look beyond the top spot. Despite difficulty cracking the US market,, the Huawei Honor 8 is the number 2 phone in Finland and two Huawei models make number 4 in Nigeria and Serbia.
Source: Ookla
