A new report from Gartner has revealed the operating systems used in the last quarter's smartphone sales. It says a total of 417 million mobile phones were sold in the third quarter of 2010, up 35% from Q3 2009, with smartphone sales accounting for 19.3% of overall mobile phone sales. That's a 96% increase on smartphone sales from the third quarter last year, exceeding 80 million devices.
Once again Symbian was the most-used operating system in those smartphones, although its 36.6% market share was down several percentage points from last year. In second place with 25.5% was Android, while in third place with 16.7% was Apple's iOS.RIM was fourth and Microsoft was fifth.
Roberta Cozza, principal research analyst at Gartner, said "Smartphone OS providers have entered a period of accelerated platform evolution, stimulated by more regular product releases, new platform entrants and new device types. Any platform that fails to innovate quickly — either through a vibrant multi-player ecosystem or clear vision of a single controlling entity — will lose developers, manufacturers, potential partners and ultimately users."
| Mobile OS |
Units sold to end users
Q3 2010
|
Market share
|
| Symbian |
29,480,100
|
36.6%
|
| Android |
20,500,000
|
25.5%
|
| Apple iOS |
13,484,000
|
16.7%
|
| RIM BlackBerry |
11,908,300
|
14.8%
|
| Microsoft Windows Mobile |
2,247,900
|
2.8%
|
| Linux |
1,697,100
|
2.1%
|
| Other OS |
1,214,800 |
1.5% |
[Source: Gartner (November 2010)]