iPhone, Android or Huawei? Which Store Your App Link Should Expect, Country by Country (2026)
Before you print a QR code or buy a campaign in a new market, estimate who will tap it. Twelve months of public data for 21 countries, where Huawei and HarmonyOS still matter, and how one Appy link covers every one of those stores.
Why this is an estimate, and why it is still useful
Your own audience is the only real answer to “how many of our taps will come from iPhones?”. You don’t have that answer before a campaign launches in a new country, and that is when you decide which stores the link must cover, what the landing page says and which creative to test.
So this is a planning estimate built from public sources: StatCounter’s mobile operating system and vendor shares for October 2025 to September 2026, and Counterpoint’s sales shares for the second quarter of 2026. StatCounter counts page views across a large network of websites, not devices and not your customers. A premium fitness app in Germany will skew more iPhone than the German average; a utility app in Brazil may skew more Android. Treat the numbers as the starting point you adjust once your own link data comes in.
Four numbers that frame the year
- average iOS share of mobile web traffic worldwide, Oct 2025 to Sep 2026
- 30.5%
- markets on our list where iPhones averaged a clear majority: US, Canada, Japan, Australia
- 4
- Android share in India over the same twelve months
- 94%
- HarmonyOS share of China’s smartphone sales in Q2 2026 (Counterpoint)
- 24%
average iOS share of mobile web traffic worldwide, Oct 2025 to Sep 2026
markets on our list where iPhones averaged a clear majority: US, Canada, Japan, Australia
Android share in India over the same twelve months
HarmonyOS share of China’s smartphone sales in Q2 2026 (Counterpoint)
iPhone vs Android, 12-month average by country
StatCounter mobile OS share, unweighted average of the twelve months from October 2025 to September 2026. The range shows the lowest and highest month for iOS.
Don’t quote a single month
The ranges in the table are the reason we averaged twelve months. iOS share in Saudi Arabia moved between 20.8% and 52.3% across the year. Germany swung between 27.6% and 44.8%, Russia between 26.5% and 41.4%. Even the United States, usually the steadiest market, dropped from 60.7% in August 2026 to 53.5% in September.
Some of that is real seasonality, such as new iPhones in September and holidays. Some is how the sample moves. Either way, a plan built on one month can be wrong by twenty points. If your campaign budget depends on the split, plan on the average and watch your own first week of data.
Where Huawei, Honor and HarmonyOS still matter
Huawei phones released after May 16, 2019 don’t ship with Google Play. Google says it can only work with Huawei on models that were public before that date, and Huawei isn’t on Google’s list of Play Protect certified partners. Huawei’s current international flagship still runs EMUI, which is Android-based, with AppGallery as its store. Send those phones to Google Play and they hit a dead end.
Outside China the numbers are small. Huawei’s 12-month average share of mobile web traffic was about 4.1% in Russia, 2.1% in Saudi Arabia and Malaysia, 1.7% in Germany, 1.5% in the UAE and 1.1% in Turkey, against 13.5% in China. Small, but on a packaging run that is still thousands of people who can’t reach your app without an AppGallery link.
Two details trip people up. Honor is a separate company now, with Google Play, and in Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Malaysia it has a larger traffic share than Huawei. And HarmonyOS is a China story: Counterpoint put it at 24% of Chinese smartphone sales in Q2 2026 and 5% worldwide. Its newest versions, HarmonyOS 5 and 6, don’t run Android apps at all, so they need a native HarmonyOS app.
What one link has to cover in 2026
appy.to/yourapp
one link, every market
- iPhoneApp Store
- Android with GoogleGoogle Play
- Huawei after 2019AppGallery
- ComputerYour website
One Appy link covers every market
You don’t need a different link per country. An Appy link looks at each phone the moment it is tapped and sends it to its own store: the App Store, Google Play, AppGallery, or your website on a computer. That works on every plan, Free included, so the iPhone user in Toronto and the Huawei user in Riyadh reach your app from the same QR code.
And the estimate in this article turns into your real number within days. Every Appy link counts its clicks, and Pro breaks them down by country and device, kept with no time limit. Plan with public data, then steer with your own.
Stores beyond the big two
Russia: RuStore
Since September 1, 2022 Russian law requires RuStore to be pre-installed on Android phones, and a 2025 law requires phone makers and sellers to let users download and pay for apps through it. Ask whether your app is listed there; if it is, Android users in Russia may expect it.
China: no Google Play
Android apps reach Chinese users through phone-maker stores (Huawei, Honor, OPPO, vivo, Xiaomi) and Tencent’s store. Google Play isn’t officially available. A link for China needs a web landing page or the specific store you are listed in.
EU, Japan and Brazil: alternative iOS marketplaces
Apple allows alternative app marketplaces in the EU since iOS 17.4 (March 2024), in Japan since iOS 26.2 and in Brazil since iOS 26.5. For most apps the App Store stays the default; only apps that actually list elsewhere need another route.
Samsung Galaxy Store
Pre-installed on Galaxy phones. Samsung phones also have Google Play, so Play stays the default unless you run a Galaxy Store promotion.
A quick planning guide
iPhone-first markets
- US, Canada, Japan, Australia
- Lead the creative with iPhone screenshots
- Make sure the App Store page is localised
- Still route Android: it is 35–40% of traffic
Split markets
- United Kingdom, roughly half and half
- Saudi Arabia, depending on the month
- Show both store badges on print
- Expect the split to move during the year
Android-first markets
- India, Indonesia, Nigeria, Brazil, Turkey, UAE, most of Europe
- Optimise the Google Play listing first
- Add AppGallery for Russia, the Gulf and Malaysia
- In China, plan for local stores and HarmonyOS
How to read these numbers
StatCounter bases its figures on page views from websites in its network, applies no weighting, filters known bots and revises data for 45 days after publishing. Heavy users and the kinds of sites in its network count for more. Counterpoint and IDC measure phones sold in a quarter, which is a different thing again: HarmonyOS is a quarter of Chinese sales but doesn’t appear in StatCounter’s web data at all. And since Chrome 110, Android phones report a frozen “Android 10; K” user agent, which is one plausible reason vendor data has large “unknown” shares in some countries.
Read next
- RuStore, AppGallery and other Android storesHow to route to stores beyond Google Play.
- One link for the App Store, Google Play and AppGallerySetting up the three-store link step by step.
- Why Chrome says every phone runs Android 10The user agent change behind the “unknown” device data.
- App Store QR code generatorOne code that sends every phone to its own store.
Platform share questions
What share of smartphone users have an iPhone?
Worldwide, iOS averaged 30.5% of mobile web traffic from October 2025 to September 2026 according to StatCounter. Counterpoint put iPhones at 20% of smartphones sold in Q2 2026. Web traffic and sales measure different things.
In which countries do iPhones have the majority?
On a twelve-month average: Canada (63.3%), Japan and Australia (61.3%) and the United States (59.7%). The UK is roughly even at 50.4%.
Do I still need a Huawei AppGallery link?
If you sell in China, Russia, the Gulf or Southeast Asia, yes. Huawei phones released after May 2019 have no Google Play, and Huawei’s web traffic share outside China ranged from about 1% to 4% over the last year.
Does HarmonyOS run Android apps?
HarmonyOS 2 to 4 did. HarmonyOS 5 and 6, sold mostly in China, don’t, so those users need a native HarmonyOS app. Huawei’s international phones still run Android-based EMUI with AppGallery.
Are these Appy’s own click numbers?
No. They are public estimates from StatCounter and Counterpoint, which is why we call them a planning estimate. Your own link analytics will show your real split after launch.
Can one link send each country to the right store?
Yes. An Appy link routes by device at the moment of the tap, so one link or QR code covers the App Store, Google Play, AppGallery and a web fallback in every country. It works on the free plan.
How do I see the split for my own links?
Every Appy link counts clicks by device. Free shows totals; Pro adds country, device and referrer reports with no time limit.
Continue exploring
Beyond Google Play: RuStore, AppGallery, and the New Android Store Map
Android distribution is turning into a portfolio decision. A field guide to the stores that now ship as device defaults, who actually needs each one, and how to keep a single campaign link working across all of it.
App Store, Google Play, and AppGallery Link Formats: The Reference
Every canonical, legacy, and scheme URL for the three major app stores — what each form does, where each one dies, and the encoding mistakes that silently eat campaign data. Built to be bookmarked.
QR Code Statistics 2026: The Numbers That Actually Matter
A sourced roundup of QR code usage, market size, payment volume, and scan behavior in 2026 — every figure with a named source, plus the honest read on what each one means for app teams.
Looking for something else? Browse all topics on the blog.
Launch in any market with one link
App Store, Google Play, AppGallery and a web fallback behind one link or QR code, with the real device split of your own audience in the dashboard.