Android & iOS Have 99.6% Of All Smartphone Sales

Figures published this week from Gartner show that in the last quarter of 2016 the two major smartphone operating systems of Apple's iOS and Google's Android made up 99.6% of all global smartphone sales.

Android shipped 352,669.9 units, making that 81.7% of the market
iOS shipped 77,038.9 units, making that 17.9% of the market

Yup, that's correct. The remaining operating systems, which include Windows, Blackberry and others made up just 0.4% of all smartphone sales in the last 3 months of 2016.

Digital First Doesn't Mean Digital Only

You still read lots of blogs and white papers on the Internet that cite the typical "Digital first" mantra or equivalent phrases such as "Drive all our customers to self-serve", "Provide everything online by default", etc.
And personally I've helped to either put companies online, transform their business models to the always-on world or improve their digital proposition.

But through all of this we really need to occasionally take a step back and consider those prospects or existing customers who are:

- Not able to get access online
E.g. because their internet service is not working or even not good enough

- Not able to fully use the service
E.g. for those who have accessibility needs beyond those met by WCAG compliance (or at least beyond the basic compliance level that is typically aimed for by most websites)

- Not their preference or natural choice
E.g. those who have never used online technologies or feel confused and even frightened by the concept of using something as simple as a browser interface

So when transforming the user experience and building other interactions whilst sitting in your 'cross-functional' agile teams of user experience, product managers, designers, developers, testers and content specialists... take a moment to consider those who are not digitally enabled and how they might get on.