AppleInsider Staff
The IDC data issued on Thursday shows once again that the smartphone operating system competition has become a two-horse race between Apple's iOS, which is limited to three available iPhone models, and Google Android, which is found on a number of devices from multiple handset makers on virtually all carriers. Apple saw its market share increase from 18.3 percent of smartphones shipped in the first quarter of 2011, to 23 percent in the first three months of 2012.
Android saw even greater gains year over year, rocketing from 36.1 percent of smartphones shipped at the start of 2011 to 59 percent of shipments in the first quarter of 2012. Total estimated unit shipments for Android smartphones were 89.9 million for the quarter, compared with 35.1 million iPhones for Apple.
While iOS and Android saw gains to start 2012, all other mobile platforms lost share over the last year. The hardest hit was Nokia's Symbian platform, which dropped from 26 percent of smartphones in the first quarter of 2011 to just 6.8 percent of shipments last quarter.
Research in Motion's BlackBerry OS also tumbled from 13.6 percent a year ago to 6.4 percent to start 2012. And Microsoft's Windows Phone platform slid from 2.6 percent in 2011 to just 2.2 percent of shipments in the first quarter of 2012.
"The popularity of Android and iOS stems from a combination of factors that the competition has struggled to keep up with," said Ramon Llamas, senior research analyst with IDC's Mobile Phone Technology and Trends program. "Neither Android nor iOS were the first to market with some of these features, but the way they made the smartphone experience intuitive and seamless has quickly earned a massive following."
Total smartphone shipments for the quarter were 152.3 million units, which was up 49.9 percent from the 101.6 million shipped a year ago. In terms of units shipped, Microsoft's Windows Phone platform actually grew year over year to 3.3 million, even though its share of the overall market was smaller.
"In order for operating system challengers to gain share, their creators and hardware partners need to secure developer loyalty," said Kevin Restivo, senior research analyst with IDC's Worldwide Mobile Phone Tracker program. "This is true because developer intentions or enthusiasm for a particular operating system is typically a leading indicator of hardware sales success."
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46 Comments
Wha...?
That Qtr 1 2011 Share column is confusing as heck!
EDIT: Another AI error. The 4th column should actually be labeled Year Over Year Change, not Qtr 1 share. If you look at the source report there were 5 columns. AI left one out, and mislabeled one.
iOS increases to 23% smartphone [B]OS[/B] installations. This distinction is important. I don't expect non-tech sites to be so [I]technical[/i] but I do expect tech sites to be.
Uh... other is .3%, not 30%.
Additional comments from the IDC press release:
"Samsung was the largest contributor to Android's success, accounting for 45.4% of all Android-based smartphone shipments. But beyond Samsung was a mix of companies retrenching themselves or slowly growing their volumes."
(Which would give Samsung at least around 26% marketshare even if all they sold were Android-based smartphones, assuming I did the math sorta, kinda right.... Right?)
"Linux maintained its small presence in the worldwide smartphone market, thanks in large part to Samsung's continued emphasis on bada. By the end of the quarter, Samsung accounted for 81.6% of all Linux-powered smartphones, a 3.6% share gain versus the prior-year period. (That one's for you Soli as I noted you've been curious about how much of Sammy's sales were accounted for by those OS's)
Other vendors, meanwhile, have been experimenting with Android to drive volume. Still, Linux's fortunes are closely tied to Samsung's strategy, which already encompasses Android, Windows Phone, and later this year, Tizen."
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/android-and-ios-powered-smartphones-expand-their-share-of-the-market-in-the-first-quarter-according-to-idc-2012-05-24
Uh... other is .3%, not 30%.
I was wondering why for a second there the sum of the 2012 share column was over 100%. Makes sense.