Though Apple iPhone remains one of the most popular smartphones across the world, its popularity is waning while sales of Android phones have catapulted. An internal study by Apple revealed some reasons why people preferred phones based on Google’s Android operating system over the iPhone.

Here are 6 of the factors that helped Android pip iPhone in the smartphone race.

Trust in Google
The survey showed that 36% of the respondents trust Google as a brand. The internet search giant is counted among the most innovative technology companies in the world and has brought a rich smartphone experience even at a paltry budget to the users.

Therefore, it comes as no surprise that Android phone buyers are ready to share their Gmail details and location on the phones.

Larger screen size
Apple has continued to use a 3.5-inch display since the first iPhone was launched, never deviating from the screen size. However, manufacturers like Samsung and HTC have rolled out flagship devices with 4.8-inch (Samsung Galaxy S III) and 4.7-inch (HTC One X) touchscreens. Even second rung Android-powered smartphones now feature a 4.3-inch display.

This has attracted many buyers, with 30% of the respondents in Apple’s internal survey citing a larger screen as the reason to dump the iPhone in favour of Android phones.

Google Play Store
Apple’s repository of apps is the largest in the world, with over 7,25,000 apps and 25 billion downloads. However, 27% of those surveyed by Apple said that they preferred Google Play Store’s apps over the ones available at Apple’s store. Android’s app store has over 5,00,000 apps and has registered over 20 billion downloads.

Better Google integration
Google’s services seem to be quite important for many buyers today, as 26% of the respondents said that they preferred Android phones over Apple iPhone as the former offered better integration with Gmail, Google Docs and Google Voice Search etc. Some other proprietary Google services integrated with Android are Google Maps, Local, Latitude, Google+, Google Calendar, Google Search and YouTube.

The ‘latest and greatest’ smartphone
In the battle for smartphone supremacy, companies introduce new technologies very frequently. Buyers looking for the best Android phones can choose between flagship devices of major companies like Samsung, HTC, Motorola and LG. Each company offers its top-of-the-line phone with a host of new services and apps, which attracted 26% of the buyers. On the other hand, Apple has just the iPhone 4S to speak of, which has only a few advancements as compared to the iPhone 4.

Latest technology
Though Apple iPhone is considered iconic and revolutionary, it lacks some features that phones running on Google’s Android OS have. These include video calls on 3G and 4G connections, NFC, music stores other than iTunes and choice of keyboards, among many others.

On the other hand, manufacturers developing Android phones offer new technologies, like Samsung’s Smart Stay and Direct Call. This made 25% of the buyers favour Android over iPhone, as per the survey.