Over the past couple of years, Android has significantly started to eat away at Apple’s marketshare and according a new report, Google’s operating system is now completely dominating. Strategy Analytics says that 152.1 million Android phones were shipped in Q4 of 2012 alone, giving Android a shocking 70 percent of the global smartphone operating system market. In Q4 of 2011, 80.6 million devices running Android were shipped, showing incredible growth year over year. The report estimates that 479 million Android devices were shipped in total last year, up from 239 million in 2011.
Apple’s iOS operating system saw modest gains, as the Cupertino company shipped roughly 136 million devices in all of 2012, up from 93 million in 2011. Apple sold 47.8 million units in Q4 of 2012, up from 37 million in Q4 of 2011. As far as marketshare goes, the company accounts for 19.4 percent of the global smartphone marketshare, up ever so slightly from the 19 percent it held in 2011.
In total, an estimated 700 million smartphones were shipped in 2012. This number is dramatically largert than the 490.5 million shipped in 2011. BlackBerry, Windows Phone, Symbian, and Bada combined accounted for just 7.9 percent of smartphones sold in Q4 of 2012, meaning that Android and iOS devices held 92 percent of the market.
If you zero in on the United States only, the race between Google and its competitors gets much tighter, but what matters is Android’s total domination around the world. Because the operating system is open source, there are many different devices that run it and cater to everyone’s needs. You want a phone with a keyboard? No worries, there’s a QWERTY device running Android available. Want a small screen? Want a giant screen? Android has you covered. Whereas iOS users are limited to one new device every year and one operating system design. If you don’t like it, then there are no alternatives. Android users who don’t like stock can use a device running TouchWiz, Sense, or a plethora of other options.
While some may say that all of this choice just leads to fragmentation, it’s clear that this method is working for Google and its partners. No mobile operating system is coming close to the Mountain View company and it shows no signs of slowing down. We should see a new version of Android at Google I/O this spring that will undoubtedly be better than Jelly Bean. New flagships from Samsung, HTC, and Motorola will also help Android continue its world domination.
Will Google be able to keep eating away at Apple’s marketshare? Let us know down in the comments!