New data from Strategy Analytics from the fourth quarter of 2012 has suggested that Apple and Android continue to lead the market in terms of operating system shipments. The two platforms grabbed around 92 percent of the smartphone market in 2012, which will get other companies like Microsoft to push the sales of their own platforms in 2013.
It was the Android platform that continued to expand in 2012, with over 152.1 million shipments coming in the year’s last quarter. Apple on the other hand only managed 47.8 million shipments, which means that the market share of the company is actually down 2 percent from the same time in 2011. Android had cornered around 70 percent of the smartphone market in the last quarter of 2012, as compared to the 51 percent that it achieved in 2011 around the same period.
Neil Mawston, an analyst with Strategic Analytics said that even though 2012 was the year for Android, 2013 looks to be challenging as there is a lot of competition lining up in the form of BlackBerry, Windows, Tizen and even Firefox
With developed regions like North America and Western Europe getting saturated with smartphone owners, shipment growth has fallen in 2013 as compared to the volumes registered in 2012. However, shipments did reach record level in 2012, with 700 million units being sold, as compared to the 490.5 million sold in 2011.
