PC vs Mac. Nintendo vs Sega. PlayStation vs Xbox. Everyone loves a tech showdown and there are few people who don’t take a side in one or the other of those battles. However, none of them have quite the same potential impact on our daily lives as the one between Apple and Android for our phones, hearts and space in our back pockets.
This particular battle began in the early 2000s when Google bought Android, which was developing an operating system for smartphones, while Apple was deep into the development of its first iPhone.
That was launched in 2007, changing the world in the process, while Google reacted by forming the Open Handset Alliance with dozens of tech and phone companies to promote Android as a free open source OS.
The T-Mobile G1 was the first phone to run on Android and was launched in 2008, meaning that it had some way to go to overcome the dominance of the iPhone. However, by 2012, Android’s usage on so many different handsets from different providers meant that it had overtaken Apple’s iOS for the first time. As of June 2021, Android currently owns almost 73% of the smartphone market with Apple trailing on 26%.
But does Android also own our hearts? Electronics Hub decided to do research into which platform the world really loves, using an academic language analysis tool called SentiStrength to analyze 347,856 brand-related tweets from around the world for positive or negative feelings, rated as a positive (1 to 5) and negative (-1 to -5) score.
Here’s what they found:
Only 19 states favor Apple, with the other 32 having more positive tweets about Android, including New York, Florida, Texas, Alaska and Hawaii. Both Dakotas are fans of Apple but there was a North/South divide in the Carolinas, with the South going in Android’s favor.
It turns out that eastern Europe is home to the biggest Android haters, with 34.4% of Polish tweets complaining about it while 32% of Slovakians didn’t like it either. However, that region also produced the most negative feedback on Apple, with over 35% of Latvian tweets not in favor of it.
Further afield, almost 30% of New Zealanders weren’t fans of Apple, compared to just under 23% of them who were negative about Android, which was still enough to put them in the top ten haters for that platform too. Austria is another country to feature in the top ten haters for both, coming 5th for Apple and 7th for Android.
Of course, while the divide between smartphone platforms is intense, one thing this study does confirm is just how strongly we feel about our phones in general, which is no surprise as we will spend 9 years of our lives (or 76,500 hours) using them.
So, before you go back to scrolling on Instagram or Twitter, why not dig deeper into the data and find out whether your country loves Android or Apple more?
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This particular battle began in the early 2000s when Google bought Android, which was developing an operating system for smartphones, while Apple was deep into the development of its first iPhone.
That was launched in 2007, changing the world in the process, while Google reacted by forming the Open Handset Alliance with dozens of tech and phone companies to promote Android as a free open source OS.
The T-Mobile G1 was the first phone to run on Android and was launched in 2008, meaning that it had some way to go to overcome the dominance of the iPhone. However, by 2012, Android’s usage on so many different handsets from different providers meant that it had overtaken Apple’s iOS for the first time. As of June 2021, Android currently owns almost 73% of the smartphone market with Apple trailing on 26%.
But does Android also own our hearts? Electronics Hub decided to do research into which platform the world really loves, using an academic language analysis tool called SentiStrength to analyze 347,856 brand-related tweets from around the world for positive or negative feelings, rated as a positive (1 to 5) and negative (-1 to -5) score.
Here’s what they found:
The world loves… Android
The overall scores are closer than the gap in sales between Android and Apple, but it’s still clear that the world loves Android. Of the 142 countries surveyed, it came out on top in 74, compared to 65 where Apple was the favorite, with three countries ending in a tie between the two brands - Belarus, Fiji and Peru.The USA loves… Android
The study also looked at the negative and positive sentiments across the USA on a state-by-state basis. Both Apple and Android hail from California and that’s one of the states where iOS is king, but it’s in the minority.Only 19 states favor Apple, with the other 32 having more positive tweets about Android, including New York, Florida, Texas, Alaska and Hawaii. Both Dakotas are fans of Apple but there was a North/South divide in the Carolinas, with the South going in Android’s favor.
North America loves… Android
It’s not just the USA that favors Android, with the majority of the rest of North America following suit. 13 countries, including Canada, Cuba, Honduras and Costa Rica had more positive sentiments towards Android, while only 9 countries, including Mexico, Jamaica and Barbados saw Apple coming out on top.Europe loves… Apple
Countries like the UK, Germany, Spain and Russia may follow the global trend of being more positive about Android but the continent as a whole bucks that trend by having more countries that favor Apple. 20 countries, including France, Norway, Ireland, Italy and Greece all preferring Apple to Android.South America loves… Android
It’s a close-run thing but in South America 5 countries are more positive about Android, compared to 4 that are Apple fans. Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela, Uruguay and Chile are in the Android column while Argentina, Ecuador, Bolivia and Paraguay are for Apple, which makes you wonder if the continent could have ended up in a stalemate if undecided Peru had gotten off the fence…Africa loves… Android
Of the 32 countries where the survey found data in Africa, Android again comes out on top with 17 favoring it over 15 that went for Apple. In the Android camp we have South Africa, Nigeria, Egypt and Kenya, amongst others, while the Apple supporters were found in Algeria, Morocco, Cameroon and Somalia.The Middle East & Central Asia loves… Android
In this region, 8 of the 14 countries were more positive about Android, with 6 going to Apple, including Kazakhstan where all of the tweets about Apple were in favor of it. Oil-rich countries like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were Apple fans, though neighboring Qatar is in the Android camp, along with Iraq and Iran.The Rest of Asia & Oceania loves… Android
This region is another one where the divide is a narrow one with 13 in favor of Android compared to 12 for Apple. China is where most iPhones are produced, but along with India, Japan and New Zealand, people there are more positive about their Android phones, while Australia, Indonesia and Pakistan prefer Apple. Meanwhile, North Korea prefers Android with South Koreans going for iOS.Poland and Latvia are the biggest haters
As well as looking at which phone giant had the most positive sentiment in each country, the study also went to the dark side, recording which countries had the most negative comments about them both.It turns out that eastern Europe is home to the biggest Android haters, with 34.4% of Polish tweets complaining about it while 32% of Slovakians didn’t like it either. However, that region also produced the most negative feedback on Apple, with over 35% of Latvian tweets not in favor of it.
Further afield, almost 30% of New Zealanders weren’t fans of Apple, compared to just under 23% of them who were negative about Android, which was still enough to put them in the top ten haters for that platform too. Austria is another country to feature in the top ten haters for both, coming 5th for Apple and 7th for Android.
Of course, while the divide between smartphone platforms is intense, one thing this study does confirm is just how strongly we feel about our phones in general, which is no surprise as we will spend 9 years of our lives (or 76,500 hours) using them.
So, before you go back to scrolling on Instagram or Twitter, why not dig deeper into the data and find out whether your country loves Android or Apple more?
