Android Operating System now controls 79.3% of the smartphone market

According to the latest data from the International Data Corporation (IDC), Android has consolidated its lead in the smartphone market with another solid performance in the second quarter of 2013.

Of all 216.3 million smartphones shipped in the second quarter, 187 million of those were on the Android platform. This is a 73.5% increase in sales after Android sold 108 million units of smartphones in the second quarter of 2012.

Android has moved from controlling 69.1 percent of the market in Q2 of 2012 to 79.3 percent in Q2 of 2013. This is probably due to various vendors like Samsung, LG, Lenovo, Huawei, ZTE, and other phone vendors under the Android OS.

Android’s closest rival is the iOS which only has the iPhone on board. The iPhone has further lost ground on Android after it dropped from 16.6% of the market share in the second quarter of 2012 to 13.2% in 2013 despite increasing sales from 26 million units to 31.2 million units in the second quarter of 2013.

Windows Phone OS further solidified its position as the third smartphone maker after it posted 3.7% of sales from 3.1% in Q2 of 2012. This was due to 77.6% increase in sales from 4.9 million in Q2 of 2012 to 8.7 million in Q2 of 2013.

This has been accredited to jump in sales of Nokia Lumia series as Nokia phones accounted for 81.6% of smartphones on the Windows Phone OS platform.

However, Blackberry saw its market share further plummet, “reaching levels not seen in the history of IDC’s Mobile Phone Tracker” according the IDC. Blackberry saw market share decline from 4.9% in Q2 of 2012 to 2.9% in Q2 of 2013 after sales declined from 7.7 million units to 6.8 million units in the second quarter of 2013.

Apple’s declined share has been blamed on the fact that it has not launched a phone for nearly a year after the launch of the iPhone 5. The fact that people still think that iOS is still in this battle of operating systems is a testimony to Apple’s reputation it had established over the years.

Anywhere in the world, 79.3% to 13.2% will not be considered as a rivalry. If Android continues its domination which is predictable, we may very well soon witness how Windows dominated the PC market where it was Windows and the rest.

It may soon be Android and the rest in the smartphone market. First it was Blackberry, then Apple, now Android.

The only rivalry I think we can still deem competitive is Samsung vs Apple when considering the profitability of each venture. Apple may be more profitable than Samsung but it is far off in sales after Apple sold less than half of Samsung’s 79.9 million units in the second quarter of 2013.

Time will tell how this will shape up after the release of a new Apple iPhone and the iOS 7 this fall.

Posted in Apple, Google