Android continues to steamroll the competition, this time claiming a whopping 81.3% of the mobile smartphone market. That’s a rise from the 75% market share Android enjoyed this time last year, and a seemingly insurmountable lead for the competition.
According to Strategy Analytics, Apple was second place, claiming 13.4% for their iOS platform. That’s a drop of 2.2% this time over last year. Microsoft’s Windows Phone was up a massive 2% to 4.1%, and is the fastest growing smartphone platform when you appreciate for scale. Microsoft sold 10.2 million smartphones, compared to 3.7 million from Q3 2013, an increase of 178%.
Appreciating for scale is the name of the game here, as Apple also falls victim. The Cupertino company sold 33.8 million more units last quarter, but saw their market share fall two percent. Android shipments rose 74.8 million, while Blackberry dropped to 2.5 million smartphones shipped from 7.4 million last year.
The dividing line is lower-end devices, with Android being the only platform that has cheaper devices nearly at-will. Apple still relies on carrier support, and the Lumia brand is a higher-end device. Both Apple and Microsoft are struggling to gain traction in emerging markets, and could be in trouble with other markets like Japan or China.
Strategy Analytics believes those lower-end devices will ell the tale, moving forward. Apple and iOS are the only real competition for Android right now, and they suffer from a lack of cheap, readily available devices. Of course, these numbers don’t appreciate for the newer lines of iPhones, which could sway the percentages a bit.
All those android phones and IOS still destroys android in app and other content $$ sales. Much more important than OS market share.
Yep, that’s what Apple told us when they were down to <5% in the PC/Mac showdown.
There is such a thing as first-mover advantage and that will take a few years to reel in. After that it will be back to the Mac/PC type era.