Oh the joys of market statistics. We all just love reading over them so much, don’t we?
That was pure sarcasm, of course, I enjoy browsing sales numbers and stats about as much as I love fiddling with an iPhone. Just in case you didn’t gather my intentions there, I don’t enjoy reading market stats, and I loathe fiddling with iPhones. If you feel differently, to each his own I suppose.
For the past couple years, the numbers have pretty much told us the same thing, Android is dominating the mobile hemisphere. It took the lead in late 2010/early 2011 and has stayed there ever since. Most of this success can be attributed to one or two manufacturers in particular, but concerning the overall stats that are of no consequence.
Apple is just having a hard time playing catch up, but that’s not to say the company is seeing inadequate numbers.
A report, recently released by comScore, shows that Apple increased at a percentage of 0.7% to 35% total market share (from 34.3%) in a matter of months. The statistics were collected over a three month period, that ended in November, 2012.
The numbers also show that RIM, Microsoft and Symbian continue to bleed market share.
Android’s market share, on the other hand, continued to grow. It jumped up at a percentage of 1.1% to 53.7% total market share from 52.6% just months prior.
What we can rightfully conclude from these statistics is that Android is still dominating the market, and it doesn’t look like that trend will change anytime soon.
Of course, these numbers are not indicative of the holiday season sales, which means the following report may look a little different. It is possible that both Apple and Microsoft may see an increase in overall market share, in the next report. This can be attributed to Apple’s latest handset, the iPhone 5, and the price cut for some Windows Phone 8 models. Not to mention, several affordable Windows Phone 8 handsets were released just in time for the holiday season.
Not that, Android needs to worry, but the report for later this year may also look a little different with RIM preparing to launch Blackberry 10. RIM has a unusually strong influence on the enterprise market still, and their corresponding market share could increase after the release of their upcoming platform.
Blackberry 10 is no Android, but there’s no denying the appeal. Keep in mind, I’m not proposing a switch to the new platform at all, just merely commenting that, in certain circles, Blackberry 10 will be highly desirable. Foreign markets especially will see a tremendous increase in demand regarding Blackberry 10.
Still, all speculation aside, Android remains the dominating force in the mobile market. It will be fascinating to see what Android manufacturers have up their sleeves this year. Samsung is clearly on the ball with their Galaxy models, and that is not expected to change. Perhaps Motorola will even pull out a few surprises, especially considering Motorola Mobility is now Google owned.
Stay tuned, there sure will be plenty of information on the future of Android coming out over the next couple of weeks. CES 2013 is only about 5 days away, after all.
In the meantime, if you’d like to check out more mobile industry stats see the source below. For example, you can find what type of content is being used on mobile devices most, as well. Oh, and in case you’re wondering, people text a lot.
Source: comScore