Telecom Lead India: Microsoft Windows Phone has replaced BlackBerry as the third largest OS with 3.2 percent market share in Q3 2013.
Windows Phone’s OS market share increased 133.33 percent to 3.2 percent from 2 percent, while BlackBerry OS market share decreased to 2.9 percent from 6.4 percent.
Nokia is accounting for 79 percent of Windows Phone shipments during the quarter, IDC said. Nokia has shipped 20.3 million units of Windows Phone devices.
Windows Phone posted the largest year-over-year gain among the leading operating systems.
“Windows Phone claiming the third spot is a first and helps validate the direction taken by Microsoft and key partner Nokia,” said Kevin Restivo, senior research analyst with IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker.
IDC says BlackBerry realized double-digit declines from a year ago. In its first quarter of availability, BlackBerry shipped more than a million units running on its new BB10 platform. At the same time, BlackBerry still relied on its BB7 smartphones for the majority of its shipment volume, which, due to their lower prices, were well received within key markets.
Android and iOS combined for 92.3 percent of all smartphone shipments during the first quarter of 2013.
However, Apple iOS market share decreased to 17.3 percent from 23 percent.
On the other hand, Android’s OS market share increased to 75 percent from 59.6 percent.
Samsung supported the growth of Android.
Apple iOS marked its largest ever first quarter volume on the strength of its iPhone shipment volumes, yet the operating system posted a year-over-year decline in market share and lower year-over-year shipment growth than the overall market.
IDC says given the relatively low volume generated, the Windows Phone camp will need to show further gains to solidify its status as an alterative to Android or iOS.
| Top Five Smartphone Operating Systems, Shipments, and Market Share, 1Q 2013 (Units in Millions) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1Q13 | 1Q12 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Shipment | 1Q13 Market | Shipment | 1Q12 Market | Year over Year | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Operating System | Volume | Share | Volume | Share | Change | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Android | 162 | .1 | 75 | .0% | 90 | .3 | 59 | .1% | 79 | .5% | |||||||||||||||
| iOS | 37 | .4 | 17 | .3% | 35 | .1 | 23 | .0% | 6 | .6% | |||||||||||||||
| Windows Phone | 7 | .0 | 3 | .2% | 3 | .0 | 2 | .0% | 133 | .3% | |||||||||||||||
| BlackBerry OS | 6 | .3 | 2 | .9% | 9 | .7 | 6 | .4% | -35 | .1% | |||||||||||||||
| Linux | 2 | .1 | 1 | .0% | 3 | .6 | 2 | .4% | -41 | .7% | |||||||||||||||
| Symbian | 1 | .2 | 0 | .6% | 10 | .4 | 6 | .8% | -88 | .5% | |||||||||||||||
| Others | 0 | .1 | 0 | .0% | 0 | .6 | 0 | .4% | -83 | .3% | |||||||||||||||
| Total | 216 | .2 | 100 | .0% | 152 | .7 | 100 | .0% | 41 | .6% | |||||||||||||||
Source: IDC Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, May 2013.
