Android Dominates With 78.1% Market Share, iOS at 17.6%: IDC

Nearly 8 out of 10 smartphones worldwide are currently on Android – That’s a staggering figure for a mobile OS that had it’s first phone launched just 5 years back in October of 2008!

According to the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker report, Android had increased their market share to 78.1 percent as of fourth quarter of 2013 – a rise of about 40.3 percent year on year.

Android witnessed 226.1 million unit shipments in fourth quarter of 2013, as against 161.1 million in the fourth quarter of 2012.

On the other hand, iOS’s market share fell from 20.9 percent in fourth quarter of 2012 (4Q12) to 17.6 percent in fourth quarter of 2013 (4Q13).

iOS had 51 million unit shipments in fourth quarter of 2013, as against 47.8 million in the fourth quarter of 2012.

Just to give you a perspective of comparison between Android and iOS – For every 2 iOS devices shipped there were 9 Android devices that went out.

Android and iOS combined accounted for 95.7% of all smartphone shipments in 4Q13, and for 93.8% of all smartphone shipments for the year 2013.

According to IDC Analysts, although most of the smartphone vendors chose to push their flagship models aggressively, the sub-$200 market grew the most, accounting for 42.6% of global volume, or 430 million units.

Windows Phone saw maximum growth in percentage terms, growing 46.7 percent year on year. 8.8 million Windows phones were shipped in 4Q2013, as compared to 6 million in 4Q2012.

Blackberry was the worst performing Smartphone OS with their shipments falling 77 percent. Their shipments came down from 7.4 million in 4Q2012 to just 1.7 million in 4Q2013.

2012 Vs 2013 Volume Growth

Android grew from 500 million shipments in 2012 to over 793 million in 2013, a growth of 58.7 percent. iOS on the other hand managed only 12.9% in the entire year (153.4 mln in 2013 vs 135.9 mln in 2012).

Windows phone shipments grew 90.9%, albeit on a smaller volume (33.4 mln in 2013 vs 17.5 in 2012).

Even with such high market share, Android’s upward march still seems to be intact and will continue for atleast next couple of years. Leaving aside their fragmentation issues, Android is now becoming a monopoly in Smartphone OS market – exactly like they have done it in the realm of web search!