Press release; Steve Shen, DIGITIMES [Monday 5 November
2012]
Total Android smartphone shipments worldwide reached 136 million
units in the third quarter of 2012, accounting for 75% of the 181.1 million
smartphones shipped in the quarter, according to IDC. The 91.5% on-year growth
was nearly double the overall market growth rate of 46.4%.
"Android has been one of the primary growth engines of the
smartphone market since it was launched in 2008," said Ramon Llamas, research
manager, Mobile Phones at IDC. "In every year since then, Android has
effectively outpaced the market and taken market share from the competition.
Android, having topped the 100 million unit mark last quarter,
reached a new record level in a single quarter. By comparison, 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. Samsung once
again led all vendors in this space, but saw its market share decline as
numerous smaller vendors increased their production.
iOS was a distant second place to Android, but was the only other
mobile operating system to amass double-digit market share for the quarter. The
late quarter launch of the iPhone 5 and lower prices on older models prevented
total shipment volumes from slipping to the third quarter levels. But without a
splashy new OS-driven feature like Siri in 2011 and FaceTime in 2010, the iPhone
5 relied on its larger, but not wider, screen and LTE connectivity to drive
growth.
BlackBerry's market share continued to sink, falling to just over 4%
by the end of the quarter. With the launch of BlackBerry 10 yet to come in 2013,
BlackBerry will continue to rely on its aging BlackBerry 7 platform, and equally
aging device line-up. Still, demand for BlackBerry and its wildly popular BBM
service is strong within multiple key markets worldwide, and the number of
subscribers continues to increase.
Symbian posted the largest year-on-year decline of the leading
operating systems. Nokia remains the largest vendor still supporting Symbian,
along with Japanese vendors Fujitsu, Sharp, and Sony. Each of these vendors is
in the midst of transitioning to other operating systems and IDC believes that
they will cease shipping Symbian-powered smartphones in 2013. At the same time,
the installed base of Symbian users will continue well after the last Symbian
smartphone ships.
Windows Phone marked its second anniversary with a total of just 3.6
million units shipped worldwide, fewer than the total number of Symbian units
shipped. Even with the backing of multiple smartphone market leaders, Windows
Phone has yet to make a significant dent into Android's and iOS's collective
market share. That could change in the fourth quarter of 2012, when multiple
Windows Phone 8 smartphones will reach the market.
Linux volume declined for the third straight quarter as did its
year-over-year growth. Samsung accounted for the majority of shipments once
again, but like most other vendors competing with Linux-powered smartphones,
most of its attention went towards Android instead. Still, that has not deterred
other vendors from experimenting, or at least considering the open-source
operating system, as multiple reports of Firefox, Sailfish, and Tizen plan to
release new Linux-based experiences in the future.
|
IDC: Top-6 smartphone mobile operating systems, shipments,
and market share, 3Q12 (m units)
| |||||
|
Operating system
|
3Q12 shipments
|
3Q12 market share
|
3Q11 shipments
|
3Q11 market share
|
Y/Y shipment change
|
|
Android
|
136.0
|
75.0%
|
71.0
|
57.5%
|
91.5%
|
|
iOS
|
26.9
|
14.9%
|
17.1
|
13.8%
|
57.3%
|
|
BlackBerry
|
7.7
|
4.3%
|
11.8
|
9.5%
|
-34.7%
|
|
Symbian
|
4.1
|
2.3%
|
18.1
|
14.6%
|
-77.3%
|
|
Windows Phone 7/ Windows Mobile
|
3.6
|
2.0%
|
1.5
|
1.2%
|
140.0%
|
|
Linux
|
2.8
|
1.5%
|
4.1
|
3.3%
|
-31.7%
|
|
Others
|
0.0
|
0.0%
|
0.1
|
0.1%
|
-100.0%
|
|
Total
|
181.1
|
100.0%
|
123.7
|
100.0%
|
46.4%
|
Source: IDC, compiled by Digitimes, November 2012
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