In the battle of the mobile phone operating systems, Apple seems to be on the losing end, even while meeting Wall Street expectations in shipments. Android on the other hand is still on a rise globally, except in the US where it faces a touch battle from iOS. Windows phone on the other hand is on a steady rise.
According to IDC, a total of 236.4 million smartphones shipped in second quarter of 2013 compared to 156.2 million smartphones shipped in the same quarter in 2012, this translates to a 51.3% increase in smartphones shipments. Second quarter also saw an increase of 9.3% up from 216.3 million.
Ramon Llamas, Research Manager at IDC attributes the Apple decline to the lack of new smartphone launch since almost a year ago when Apple launched the iPhone 5, he expects the same to change when Apple announces a new iPhone and a revamped iOS.
Nokia on the other hand is calling the shots in Windows Phone platform and Ryan Reith, Program Manager at IDC expects this to continue, adding that with increase of Android OEMS, Windows phone is poised to become a very attractive differentiator in the very competitive market segment.
Nokia currently has an 81.5% market-share in Windows Phone with 7.1 million device shipments, up from 4.1 million devices same time last year. Samsung comes second with a million Windows Phone smartphones at 11.5%, HTC comes third with a mere 400,000 devices and 4.6% market-share. Huawei sold 200,000 Windows Phone smartphones at 2.3% market-share.
On the Android front, Samsung takes both the money and the numbers. Out of the 187.4 devices shipped within the quarter translating to 79.3% marketshare, Samsung sold 73.3 million devices marking a 39.1% Android market-share. LG comes a distant second at 12.1 million smartphones and 6.5% marketshare, Lenovo is third with 11.4 million devices, 6.1% marketshare, Huawei and ZTE tie at fourth at 10.2 million smartphones and 5.4% marketshare. Any other brand like Sony and HTC are not considered in the list that has the top 5 of each platforms.
Blackberry saw a drop of device shipments from 7.7 million to 6.8 million and a drop of market-share from 4.9% to 2.9%, this making Windows Phone slide up to third with 8.7 million smartphones at 3.7% market-share up from 4.9 million devices and 3.1% market-share. Symbian which propelled Nokia to the top in the mobile Phone world, did a measly 500,000 devices as Nokia clears stock of already manufactured devices. The company has since stopped production of Symbian phones with the 41MP Nokia 808 Pureview being the last.
