Android and iOS Lead Smartphone Market Share

According to the latest statistics revealed by the International Data Corporation (IDC), Android and iOS dominate the smartphone market together by holding 82% of the total market share.

Market research firm IDC has recently released its global smartphone market share report for the first quarter of 2012. The report said that the shipments of Android-based devices accounted for 89.9 million units during the first quarter of this year which is up from 36.7 million in the first quarter of 2011. Apple’s iOS shipments hit 35.1 million units this year, which was 18.6 million units in the first quarter of last year.

This year’s first quarter market share of Android and iOS were 59% and 23% respectively. Android shipments increased by 145% and iOS shipments soared by 88.7% this year when compared to the first quarter of 2011.

Ramon Llamas, IDC’s senior research analyst said, “The popularity of Android and iOS stems from a combination of factors that the competition has struggled to keep up with”. He added “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.”

The market share of Symbian and Blackberry declined 60.6% and 29.7% respectively year-over-year. But, surprisingly, the shipments of Microsoft’s Windows Phone increased 26.9% and reached 3.3 million units in the first quarter of 2012.