It's a state of play that means, while indicators point to Apple's iPhone being the best selling smartphone on the planet, it's still entirely possible for Android's total share to dwarf that of iOS by some distance.
Such is the case in China, where ad network Madhouse has claimed based on usage statistics Android is twice as popular as iOS.
All aboard Android
The numbers are sourced from apps equipped with Madhouse ads which, it's claimed, cover a broad range and reveal that, in Q4 2011, Android handsets made up 64 percent of the market.
In contrast, all versions of iOS combined accounted for 27.6 percent of handsets on Madhouse across the quarter, with other platforms bada and the rest making up the final 8.3 percent.
Nonetheless, as in other regions, Android's overall dominance doesn't prevent Apple from taking home top honours when the share is split between individual handsets.
On the slide
Madhouse numbers claims iPhone 4 is the most popular smartphone across China, with 24.8 percent of active users.
As a result, it's comfortably ahead of the handset is second spot: Huawei's C8500, which accounts for 7.1 percent of smartphone owners in the region.
The worrying sign for Apple is, despite holding top spot, iPhone 4's share fell back 13.1 percent sequentially a drop that would be understandable if iPhone 4S, which didn't launch in China in January, had been picking up the slack.
Either way, analysts believe Apple's hand in the region will expand at a rate of knots when iPhone 4S branches out beyond its current exclusivity with China Unicom - deals with rivals China Mobile and China Telecom predicted to result in annual iPhone sales in China of 40 million.
[source: Penn-Olson]
