Telecom Lead Asia: Google’s Android and Apple iOS together have captured 92 percent of smartphone OS market in Q4 2012.
Symbian, Bada and other platforms lost their market share significantly.
Strategy Analytics estimates that 152.1 million Android smartphones were shipped globally in Q4 2012, nearly doubling from 80.6 million units in Q4 2011.
Android’s share of the global smartphone market has increased from 51 percent to 70 percent over the past year.
Almost half-a-billion Android smartphones were shipped worldwide during 2012.
Google Android’s challenge for 2013 will be to defend its leadership against Apple, Microsoft, Blackberry, Firefox and Tizen.
Apple grew 29 percent annually and shipped 47.8 million smartphones worldwide for 22 percent marketshare in Q4 2012, dipping slightly from 24 percent a year earlier.
The worldwide smartphone industry has effectively become a duopoly as consumer demand has polarized around mass-market Android models and premium Apple designs.
Strategy Analytics says global smartphone shipments grew 38 percent annually to reach 217 million units in the fourth quarter of 2012.
Global smartphone shipments for the full year reached a record 700.1 million units in 2012, increasing robustly from 490.5 million units in 2011. Global shipment growth slowed from 64 percent in 2011 to 43 percent in 2012 as penetration of smartphones began to mature in developed regions such as North America and Western Europe.
Global Smartphone Operating System Shipments and Market Share in Q4 2012
| Global Smartphone OS Shipments (Millions of Units) | Q4 ’11 | 2011 | Q4 ’12 | 2012 | ||||
| Android | 80.6 | 238.9 | 152.1 | 479.0 | ||||
| Apple iOS | 37.0 | 93.0 | 47.8 | 135.8 | ||||
| Others | 39.4 | 158.6 | 17.1 | 85.3 | ||||
| Total | 157.0 | 490.5 | 217.0 | 700.1 | ||||
| Global Smartphone OS Marketshare % | Q4 ’11 | 2011 | Q4 ’12 | 2012 | ||||
| Android | 51.3% | 48.7% | 70.1% | 68.4% | ||||
| Apple iOS | 23.6% | 19.0% | 22.0% | 19.4% | ||||
| Others | 25.1% | 32.3% | 7.9% | 12.2% | ||||
| Total | 100.0% | 100.0% | 100.0% | 100.0% | ||||
| Total Growth Year-over-Year % | 55.9% | 63.8% | 38.2% | 42.7% |
