When it comes to smartphone operating systems in Latin America, Google's Android platform easily reigns in among 18 countries.

According to Guía Local, a digital guide similar to Yelp, via eMarketer, the Android smartphone operating system averaged 61.3 percent of the market share during 2013.

The Android platform was the popular choice in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, and Venezuela. The market share percentages for the Android operating system differed among the aforementioned Latin American countries but together averaged 61.3 percent.

Android's market share was the highest in Panama with 80.6 percent followed by Bolivia's 75 percent, and Argentina's 74.6 percent.

Android's dominance in most of the Latin American countries saw Apple Inc.'s iOS platform finish second place. With 33.2 percentage points behind, the iOS platform average 28.1 percent of the market share in 2013.

While Apple held second place, some Latin American countries saw the iOS platform struggle to double-digit territory such as Argentina and Paraguay. In Argentina, iOS was 64.7 percentage points behind Android as it finished with 9.9 percent of the market share. In Paraguay, iOS represented 9.8 percent of the market share behind Android's 74.5 percent. According to eMarketer, Argentina's "protectionist policies and a deeply embattled economy" have made owning an iPhone "impossible."

iOS's best performance was in Mexico with 36.4 percent, narrowly outperforming the Dominican Republic's 36 percent.

The competition between Apple and Google are considered narrow in some countries such as Colombia, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Honduras, Mexico, and Nicaragua. For Mexico and Colombia, the second and third largest populated countries in Latin America, iOS was behind Android by 22.6 percent and 16.2 percent, respectively.

In the Dominican Republic, iOS trailed Android by 11.1 percentage points (41.1 percent to 36 percent). However, BlackBerry maintained popularity in the country with 13.3 percent of the market share, which was the highest percentage for the platform among all the Latin American countries. Two other countries saw the BlackBerry platform hit double-digit territory during 2013, El Salvador's 11.3 percent and Venezuela's 12.4 percent.

BlackBerry averaged 3.3 percent of the market share for all of Latin America.

In regards to Microsoft's Windows Phone platform it failed to hit double-digit market share figures in all 18 countries represented. Windows Phone's best performance was in Mexico with 7.2 percent of the market share. Windows Phone's worst performance was in Panama, which accounted for 0.6 percent of the market share in 2013. In the end, Windows Phone averaged 4.9 percent of the market share in Latin America.

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For the latest updates, follow Latin Post's Michael Oleaga on Twitter: @EditorMikeO 

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