Even though Apple sold a record number of iPhones over the holidays, it s still an Android world.
Last year, Android became the first operating system ever to ship on 1 billion phones, according to a new report from Strategy Analytics. That helped the operating system actually increase its already dominant market share to more than 80 percent. Android s share gain came at the expense of both Apple s iOS and Microsoft s Windows Phone.
In 2014, Android was the operating system on 81.2 percent of all smartphones shipped, according to Strategy Analytics. That was up from 78.9 percent in 2013. By contrast, iOS s market share fell from 15.5 percent in 2013 to 15 percent in 2014, and Windows Phone s dropped from 3.6 percent to 3 percent.
Android s success came despite Apple s blockbuster iPhone sales in the fourth quarter. Apple sold 74.5 million iPhones in the period, which was up 46 percent from the same quarter a year earlier. The company s sales were boosted by new larger screen models that helped give it a leg up in China.
While iOS lost ground to Android in 2014, Apple gained ground on arch-rival Samsung, the leading smartphone maker. Last year, Apple shipped 192.7 million iPhones, up from 153.4 million in 2013, according to IDC. Although that result allowed the company to retain its place as the no. 2 smartphone maker globally, its share slipped to 14.8 percent from 15.1 percent, according to the research firm, because the broader smartphone market grew even faster than Apple s iPhone sales.
Still, Apple s results were far better than Samsung s. The Korean electronics giant shipped 318.2 million smartphones in 2014, only a slight change from the 316.4 million the year before, according to IDC. As a result, its share of the market slipped from 31 percent to 24.5 percent.
While Samsung and Apple saw their share of the market slip last year, Lenovo and Huawei both gained share. Lenovo, now that it has acquired Motorola, is now the third largest smartphone maker with 7.4 percent of the market, according to IDC.
Android image courtesy of Google.
