75% Of Smartphones Shipped in Q3 Run On Android
Smartphones running Google’s Android software have leapt to 75% share of worldwide smartphone shipments, according to market tracker IDC.
Google’s OS was present on 136 million devices shipped in Q3, up from 71 million a year ago, a boost of 91.5% year-over-year. Apart from RIM and Apple, most smartphone manufactures have produced a wide variety of handsets that run on Android.
Coming in a distant second was Apple’s iOS with 14.9% of the smartphone market. That is also impressive as Apple has only three phones in production, the iPhone 4, 4S and 5.
Top-end Androids like Samsung’s Galaxy S III (which is expected to sell 30 million this year) are holding their own against Apple’s iPhone.
Coming in 3rd place is RIM – who hasn’t come out with a new smartphone in over a year – and they captured 4.3% of the market, significantly dropping of 34.7% over last year. Hopefully RIM’s tune will change when they launch their new BB10 devices in early 2013.
Nokia’s Symbian squeaked in with 2.3% market share, meanwhile Microsoft’s Windows Mobile/Windows Phone rose 140% over the year to take hold of 2% of the market, but have failed to grab the buyers attention. This might shift with all their new WP8 handset coming out in a couple weeks.
