Android Market Share Increases to Two Thirds In Q2

Smartphones running Android and iOS accounted for 85 percent of all handsets shipped during the second quarter of 2012, according to the IDC Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker.

The figure represents the largest combined total of the two platforms’ market share, although Android remained comfortably in first place with 68.1 percent.

Apple’s iOS was in second with 16.9 percent, while BlackBerry and Symbian trailed with 4.8 and 4.4 percent respectively. However this was still enough to edge ahead of Windows Phone, which accounted for just 3.5 percent of shipments.

Android market dominance

“The mobile OS market is now unquestionably a two-horse race due to the dominance of Android and iOS,” said Kevin Restivo, senior research analyst with IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker. “With much of the world’s mobile phone user base still operating feature phones, the smartphone OS market share battle is far from over. There is still room for some mobile OS competitors to gain share, although such efforts will become increasingly difficult as smartphone penetration increases.”

IDC said that Android success can be traced to Samsung, which contributed 44 percent of all Android smartphones shipped during the period. This was more than the next seven vendors combined, including HTC, which recently released its high-end offering, the One X.

It added that interest in iOS had cooled since the October release of the iPhone 4S and the expected release of the iPhone 5 later this year. Symbian’s 62.9 percent drop was the biggest year-on-year decline in its history, while BlackBerry struggled ahead of the release of smartphones running BlackBerry 10 OS. Windows Phone narrowed the gap between itself and BlackBerry, but not enough to claim third sport.

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