Three or four years ago, owning an iPhone in East Asia would have made you the coolest person among all your friends. As the years passed by, more and more people had it, and the cool ceased to be cool. To quote Syndrome in The Incredibles, “Everyone can be super, and when everyone's super, no one will be.”

Now, it seems that iPhone’s market in Asia has become saturated and thus is losing its leading place. As smartphone users in Asia are turning to other brands like Samsung and HTC, the iPhone is losing some of its luster among consumers in Singapore and Hong Kong.

StatCounter, an online visitor stats tool that measures traffic collected across a network of 3 million websites, has found that Apple’s share of mobile devices in Singapore has dropped 22 percent last year. Meanwhile, Android’s market share has seen an increase of 23 percent since January 2012.

Consumers in Hong Kong are also turning their backs on iPhones. As a consequence, devices running Apple’s iOS now only account for 30 percent of the market while Android devices account for nearly two-thirds.

Apple may want to blame it on the “I want to be different” consumer mentality, but hey Apple, it’s 2013 now, so could you please “think different” and come up with some compelling new stuff for all your iFans?

Yes, iPhone used to be the king of all smartphones, but its operating system has yet to change with the times. It’s old-fashioned, outdated, and less user-friendly than its competitors. As the competition gets stiffer, Apple’s products are not up to par with the others. Many have surpassed iPhone by having superior (larger, higher-resolution) screens, more powerful processors, a freer operating system, and a plethora of better features.

As Singapore and Hong Kong are normally leading indicators on consumer electronic trends in Asia, it’s evident that Android phones have become the smart devices to be reckoned with. What’s the implication of the slipping popularity of iPhones in Asia? On one hand, it’s definitely bringing more opportunities to companies who make apps for Android. On the other hand, it’s time for Apple to invest in some new features.