The iPhone might dominate the media industry but marketers ignore the dominance of Android smartphones at their peril, with new figures showing the Google-owned operating system now accounting for 75% of the market.
With Apple holding just 15% and BlackBerry dwindling to 4%, the research by analyst group IDC shows that of the 181 million smartphones shipped during the third quarter of 2012, 136 million were Android devices. This compares to just 27 million iPhones and 7.7 million BlackBerrys.
Google’s Android operating system does have an advantage in that in runs on so many different types of smartphones, while Apple’s iOS is limited to its own products.
“Android has been one of the primary growth engines of the smartphone market since it was launched in 2008,” said Ramon Llamas, research manager for mobile phones at IDC. “In every year since then, Android has effectively outpaced the market and taken market share from the competition,” he continued.
Samsung and HTC are among the Android market leaders. Android’s total volumes for the quarter were greater than the total number of smartphones shipped in 2007, the year that Android was officially announced by Google. In the UK alone, nearly 60% of consumers now own a smartphone, according to the Mobile Operators Association.
