Apple continues to grab market share in the worldwide smartphone market. The latest data shows the iOS operating system accounted for nearly a quarter of all smartphones shipped in the first quarter of 2012.
AppleInsiderThe IDC data issued on Thursday shows once again that the smartphone operating system competition has become a two-horse race between Apple’s iOS, which is limited to three available iPhone models, and Google Android, which is found on a number of devices from multiple handset makers on virtually all carriers.
Apple’s market share increased from 18.3 percent in the first quarter of 2011, to 23 percent in Q1 2012.
Android saw even larger year over year gains, jumping from a 36.1 percent share in Q1 2011, to 59 percent in the first quarter of 2012.
While iOS and Android both showed large gains, all other mobile platforms lost ground. Nokia’s Symbian platform was the hardest hit, dropping from 26 percent of all smartphones Q1 2011, to just 6.8 percent in the same time period of 2012. BlackBerry plunged from 13.6 percent to 6.4 percent in the period, while the Windows Phone platform dipped from 2.6 percent in 2011 to 2.2 percent in 2012.
“The popularity of Android and iOS stems from a combination of factors that the competition has struggled to keep up with,” said Ramon Llamas, senior research analyst with IDC’s Mobile Phone Technology and Trends program. “Neither Android nor iOS were the first to market with some of these features, but the way they made the smartphone experience intuitive and seamless has quickly earned a massive following.”
Total smartphone shipments for Q1 were 152.3 units, up 49.9 percent from the 101.6 million shipped a year ago.
