Know your Android market: high-end Hong Kong and low-end India, January 2013

The broad variety in Android hardware and software versions can present a misleading picture.  If you look at the current distribution of the Android operating system, you’re seeing a global average that obscures many of the characteristics of individual markets. We decided to break down and compare Animoca’s top Android devices and OS versions for two very different markets: Hong Kong and India.

All data in this post are obtained from individual users of Animoca games located in India or Hong Kong and who played an Animoca game between January 15 and February 15, 2013.

Top Android devices in Hong Kong (Animoca network, Jan 15 – Feb 15, 2013)

Expensive high-end hardware is the norm in high-tech Hong Kong. With the exception of two models by Sony, Samsung’s Galaxy line is dominant.

Top Android devices in India (Animoca network, Jan 15 – Feb 15, 2013)

India is dominated by (relatively) more affordable devices, many of them still running much older versions of Android. All of the top 10 devices are Samsung, making India… Galactic. Please note that there is a form of selection bias at work here: we obtain this information from people who play Animoca games, which means that the very lowest end of the market is excluded (i.e., low-end smartphones that can do little besides email and WhatsApp are not represented).

Top Android OS versions in Hong Kong (Animoca network, Jan 15 – Feb 15, 2013)

In Hong Kong, three of the five most common versions of Android are 4.x, adding up to 49.6% of the total market – and that’s just among the top five most common versions of Android. In total, Android 4.0 and up command 58% of the market. The rest is primarily versions of Gingerbread. 

Top Android OS versions in India (Animoca network, Jan 15 – Feb 15, 2013)

In India we actually found a pre-Gingerbread version in third place (2.2.1, a fork of Froyo). The two versions of Gingerbread present in the top five list make up a whopping 44.9% of all Android users. Android  4.x accounts for only 30% of devices in India, which is just over half of the percentage found in Hong Kong.
 

Know Your Market & Devices
 

The differences in hardware and operating system distribution between markets have an important impact on Android developers, who may need to consider app compatibility across versions of Android ranging from ancient to current.

Although we deliberately chose two extremes to present side by side, it’s clear that global averages can be misleading. In particular, very large and developing markets like China, India, the Philippines, etc. can really skew global averages.

If your focus is on a particular market or cluster of markets, then relying on global averages is simply not going to give you a useful picture. You’ll have to scrutinize the data for each market instead.

If your focus is global – like Animoca’s – then you still can’t rely too much on global data, because (global or not) you’re still selling in individual markets and must understand the characteristics of each market.

[Reminder: information in this post is obtained from users of Animoca games located in India or Hong Kong and who played an Animoca game between January 15 and February 15, 2013.]