IDC just released its latest numbers on the top smartphones by operating system showing iOS and Android continue to collectively dominate the market with both experiencing growth during 2014. Together, iOS and Android grabbed 96.3% of all smartphone shipments, which IDC points out is up from 95.6% in 4Q13 and from 93.8% in calendar year 2013.
Android experienced the most growth last year with 81.5% of the market during the year marking an increase in both unit volume and market share from 2013. iOS, on the other hand, managed to also increase its unit shipments— 153.4m in 2013 vs 192.7m in 2014— but dropped slightly in overall market share.
iOS growth did manage to outpace Android in the last quarter of calendar 2014, however, with 19.7% market share vs 17.5% during the same quarter in 2013.
iOS saw its market share for 2014 decline slightly even as volumes reached a new record and grew at nearly the same pace as the overall smartphone market. Much of this was due to the strong demand for Apple’s new and larger iPhones and the reception they had within key markets. What remains to be seen is how Apple will sustain demand going forward, as larger screens were among the last gaps in its product portfolio.
The number three platform, Windows Phone, for the most part remains steady in IDC’s numbers at around 3% market share. Number four, BlackBerry, experienced significant decline with a -69.8% year-over-year change during 2014.
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I always hate these numbers as a consumer because iOS effectively is a single company whereas Android is a platform.
But as an Android developer, there’s a lot of room for apps… although selling them is problematic with piracy.
Correction. iOS is the OS or considered a platform. Apple is a single company. Android is a platform with multiple companies.
There is worse : Android isn’t a unique Platform: Android = Android without Google services + Android/Google + forks + OS based only on Android kernel etc…Android/Google Platform is 60 – 70 % of all the Android devices…near 600 or 700 million devices this year : THAT is the number you must compared to 200 millions iOS devices. And this is not the same story…