Android, iOS account for 92.3% of smartphones shipped in Q1

PanARMENIAN.Net - Android and iOS accounted for 92.3 percent of all smartphones shipped during the first quarter of 2013, according to new figures published by the International Data Corporation (IDC), The Next Web reported.

The number of new smartphones delivered with Android jumped to 162.1 million in the first three months, up from 90.3 million during the same period last year. It means that Google’s mobile operating system had a 75 percent market share of all new smartphones being shipped around the world – up from 59.1 percent over Q1 2012.

iOS held second place rather comfortably, rising ever so slightly from 35.1 million in the first quarter of 2012 to 37.4 million in 2013. It’s not all good news though; Apple’s market share of new smartphone shipments dropped from 23 percent to 17.3 percent, attributed almost entirely to the new gains made by Google.

The battle for the so-called “third pillar” of smartphone adoption continues to rock to-and-fro between Windows Phone and BlackBerry OS. Despite launching both the high-end BlackBerry Z10 and mid-range Q10, BlackBerry failed to cling to the third spot in IDC’s figures.

The research firm found that BlackBerry OS shipments had dropped to 6.3 million in the first quarter of 2013, down from 9.7 million the previous year. Given how pivotal the new BlackBerry 10 operating system is – the company worked on the touch-orientated platform for two years – these figures don’t bode well for future sales.

Windows Phone, meanwhile, saw some significant gains. Shipments increased from 3 million in the first quarter of 2012 to 7 million over the last three months.

Rounding out the top six were Linux and Symbian, with a 1 percent and 0.6 percent marketshare respectively.