Well, it’s official, Android’s position in the market has moved from “competitive” to “dominating” in terms of overall market share.
Figures recently released by research firm IDC point to Google’s OS now being the leading figure in terms of shipping numbers. It’s important to note that this is all shipping numbers, not sales numbers, but supply usually tries to match demand, so it’s not farfetched to assume that Android is also doing similarly well overall in sales.
The exact numbers are that Android shipped 136 Million Units in Q3 2012 which gives it a rough majority share of about 75% of the global market compared to have a market share of about 57% last year. That’s a significant jump, for all those paying attention.
The report states that a large amount of these numbers are coming from Korean manufacturer Samsung, who according to the latest numbers now hold about 30-35% of the smartphone market. They shipped over 56 million units in Q3, accounting for just over a third of all Android phones shipped all together.
As a comparison, iOS sold 26 million units in the same quarter.
Now it’s, again, important to note that the Android numbers are shipping numbers and are maybe not indicative of sales numbers, but it’s still an impressive set of statistics none the less.
It’s interesting to remember that only 3 years ago Android was a young upstart competing against much bigger rivals in the form of Blackberry and iOS and has now managed to climb up into the global leader of the market. In fact, the study by IDC claims that the 136 Million handset shifted in Q3 are more than the total number of smartphones shipped across all the platforms in 2007.
iOS’s market share remains the main competitor with Android, and its market share is actually growing, moving up to 14.9% from 13.8% last year Q3, which ties into the number released elsewhere of Apple doing incredibly well for itself profit wise over the last year.
So how has Android managed to rise so quickly to the top of numbers game?
Well, when you look at the other competitors number’s, you start to have an obvious picture painted.
Across the board, every other smartphone maker is seeing substantial contraction of every other OS type.
A quick run down of everyone else
Blackberry’s market share has shrunk to just 4% continuing RIM’s steady decline from once being at the top of the pile. With the delay of the BB 10 until Q1 2013 we don’t think it’s likely they’ll be able to claw back any numbers until that release.
Symbian declined more than any other platform on the market, with a year-on-year loss of 77% of their overall market share. This may be stark, but hardly surprising considering the general opinion of Symbian as an old and clunky OS compared to more modern platforms.
Windows Phone interestingly, is currently sitting on the smallest market share of all the majors with only 3.6%. As this is a Q3 report though, it will not be taking into account the newly released Windows Phone 8 and the various devices that are arriving during this quarter sporting it.
This Christmas will be a very interesting one, and we at Kumulos are curious to see how the release of the iPhone 5 along with Google’s new Nexus 4 and 10 and the Nokia Lumia sporting Window’s Phone 8 change the landscape during Q4.
As an app developer, it is always important to stay abreast of the shifts in the smartphone and mobile device market as you may be able to time your app releases with surges in particular platforms, which in turn is more likely to encourage sales of your app as new users seek to find the latest and greatest thing for their new toys.
In an ever more diversely connected world, staying one step ahead of the game can give you the edge over many of your competitors. Time is, of course, money, and by spending that time on putting yourself in a better business position you can reap the rewards and here at Kumulos we make it our aim to give developers the tools and knowledge to get ahead.
That’s why we combine a robust mobile backend as a service with on-the-ball tech support and business management advice to make sure our app developers get the best opportunities possible for their app to succeed.
So if you’re a developer looking to break into market or a seasoned Vet who needs some advice to keep the ball rolling, why not sign up today?
