Android is the mobile operating system by Google. As popular as it can be, as of September 2016, it powers about 9 out of 10 smartphones in the market. This milestone is achieved as the sales of Android devices increased by 10 percent year-on-year (328.6 million devices).
Android's main competitor is Apple's iOS. During the same period, the company has shipped 45.5 million iPhones, or down about 5.2 percent from 2015. The company has not performed well in selling its flagship iPhone 7 and 7 Plus.
Another thing that made Android to reach such height is because the global mobile operating systems by other manufacturers, including Microsoft, Samsung and BlackBerry, are all seeing declines. Those three combined, only make up to about 0.3 percent of the total smartphone market.
This victory for Google is owed much to Android's penetration to China and to low-cost manufacturers.
While Android remains profitable, controlling it is a problem for Google. Android is an open-source operating system. And by having many manufacturers using it, it's ecosystem has become overcrowded and fragmented. Google tries to regain the mobile market control by previously announcing Pixel, its very own brand for its mobile devices.
With Pixel, Google is attacking the market with its own hardware brand, competing with those that once made Android popular in the first place.
