Under the bonnet of 75 per cent of phones
Android's march to smartphone monopoly has continued with it being on three out of every four smartphones sold in the third quarter.
According to IDC, the gap between Google and its rival Apple widened further after shipments of Android-based smartphones made by Samsung, HTC and other vendors nearly doubled in the third quarter, reaching 136 million units. Strong sales boosted Android's share of the worldwide smartphone market to 75 percent, from 57.5 percent during the same time last year.
Android appears to be making gains as Blackberry and Symbian die off. Shipments of phones running those systems declining significantly. Apple's share of the market increased to 14.9 percent during the third quarter, from 13.8 percent a year earlier. IDC analyst Kevin Restivo said that Android was winning because of its close "tie-ins" to Google's broad array of online services.
Research in Motion's Blackberry operating system had 7.7 percent share in the third quarter, compared with 9.5 percent a year earlier. Symbian, which had 14.6 percent share a year ago, had a 4.1 percent share in the third quarter. Smartphone maker Nokia still offers the Symbian software in some of its phones.
Published in
Latest
Nick Farrell
E-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view itLatest from Nick Farrell