New figures from the International Data Corporation (IDC) have revealed that 85% of all smartphones shipped in the second quarter of 2012 ran either Android or Apple’s iOS. It’s a new combined high for the two mobile operating systems, contrasting with BlackBerry and Symbian which both saw their market shares fall below 5%.
Kevin Restivo, senior research analyst with IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, said “The mobile OS market is now unquestionably a two-horse race due to the dominance of Android and iOS. 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 notes that Android’s recent success can be traced directly to Samsung, which accounted for 44% of all Android smartphones shipped in Q2 2012. iOS posted double-digit growth and, although its overall market share fell, it still accounted for more devices than the total number of new Blackberry, Symbian, Windows Phone and Linux smartphones combined.
BlackBerry’s market share fell to its Q1 2009 level, while a dramatic increase in Windows Phone shipments saw Microsoft’s mobile OS moving closer to the number 3 position.
Top smartphone operating systems, shipments and market share, Q2 2012
|
Operating System
|
Q2 2012 shipments (million)
|
Q2 2012 market share
|
Q2 2011 shipments (million)
|
Q2 2011 market share
|
Year-on-year change
|
|
Android
|
104.8
|
68.1%
|
50.8
|
46.9%
|
106.5%
|
|
Apple iOS
|
26.0
|
16.9%
|
20.4
|
18.8%
|
27.5%
|
|
RIM BlackBerry OS
|
7.4
|
4.8%
|
12.5
|
11.5%
|
-40.9%
|
|
Symbian
|
6.8
|
4.4%
|
18.3
|
16.9%
|
-62.9%
|
|
Windows Phone 7 / Windows Mobile
|
5.4
|
3.5%
|
2.5
|
2.3%
|
115.3%
|
|
Linux
|
3.5
|
2.3%
|
3.3
|
3.0%
|
6.3%
|
|
Others
|
0.1
|
0.1%
|
0.6
|
0.5%
|
-80.0%
|
|
Grand Total
|
154.0
|
|
108.3
|
|
42.2%
|
Source: IDC Worldwide Mobile Phone Tracker, August 2012