It’s good news for most of the smartphone world today as the IDC reported their research results for worldwide market share numbers for smartphone operating systems in the second quarter of 2013.
The leading smartphone OS is, of course, Android (is anyone really surprised?), which grew 73 percent year-over-year, led by Samsung, and ultimately ending the quarter at 79.3 percent market share. LG and Chinese vendors Huawei, Lenovo, and ZTE, were also strong contenders in the Android space, each recording double-digit shipment volumes in the millions. Combined, these vendors accounted for 62.5% of all Android-powered smartphone shipments during the quarter.
Apple isn’t fairing as well, with its iPhone having only amassed a 20 percent YoY growth, ending the quarter at only 13.2 percent market share, a little more than 9 percent over the third-place contender, Windows Phone. With iOS 7 on the horizon, Apple hopes to boost its demand and regain some of the market share it has ceded to competitors.
Windows Phone solidifies its position as the world’s 3rd mobile operating system
Speaking of Windows Phone, the largest growth came from Microsoft’s mobile OS. Windows Phone saw a surge of 77% year over year, growing from 4.9 million device shipments in 2012 to 8.7 million in 2013, increasing its market share from 3.1 percent to 3.7 percent and even further solidifying its lead over BlackBerry as the world’s 3rd largest operating system. This also marks the second consecutive IDC report this year that depicts strong growth for Windows Phone, which is mostly attributed to Nokia.
“Nokia has clearly been the driving force behind the Windows Phone platform and we expect that to continue. However, as more and more vendors enter the smartphone market using the Android platform, we expect Windows Phone to become a more attractive differentiator in this very competitive market segment.”
BlackBerry continues to rapidly lose marketshare
BlackBerry brought up the rear with only 2.9 percent market share as it continues to bleed users to other platforms despite the release of new BlackBerry 10 hardware and software. Overall, BlackBerry dropped a whopping 11.7 percent YoY. The company is preparing to release its BlackBerry Messenger for iOS and Android this summer.
Hopefully with this continued growth, we’ll see Windows Phone gaining momentum as far as developers and smartphone vendors are concerned. After all, competition is always great for the consumer and having more smartphones and apps to choose from can only be a good thing.