According to the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, vendors shipped a total of 236.4 million smartphones in Q213, up 51.3% from the 156.2 million units shipped in Q212. Second quarter shipments grew 9.3% when compared to the 216.3 million units shipped in Q113.
“The iOS decline in the second quarter aligns with the cyclicality of iPhone,” says Ramon Llamas, Research Manager with IDC’s Mobile Phone team, in a statement. “Without a new product launch since the debut of the iPhone 5 nearly a year ago, Apple’s market share was vulnerable to product launches from the competition. But with a new iPhone and revamped iOS coming out later this year, Apple is well-positioned to re-capture market share.”
Smartphone Operating System Highlights
Android maintained its lead in terms of units shipped, with strong contributions from Samsung and its Galaxy S4. Not to be overlooked were LG and Chinese vendors Huawei, Lenovo, and ZTE, which each recorded double-digit shipment volumes in the millions. Combined, these vendors accounted for 62.5% of all Android-powered smartphone shipments during the quarter.
Apple’s iOS finished the quarter as the clear number 2 operating system in terms of unit shipments, showing that, even without new product launches, iPhone demand remains strong. Moreover, Apple added new mobile operators to its camp, boosting short-term volumes and cementing long-term end-user relationships.
Windows Phone posted the largest year-over-year increase among the top five smartphone platforms, and in the process reinforced its position as the number 3 smartphone operating system. Driving this result was Nokia, which released two new smartphones and grew its presence at multiple mobile operators. But beyond Nokia, Windows Phone remained a secondary option for other vendors, many of which have concentrated on Android. By comparison, Nokia accounted for 81.6% of all Windows Phone smartphone shipments during 2Q13.
Beleaguered BlackBerry saw its market share decline during the quarter, reaching levels not seen in the history of IDC’s Mobile Phone Tracker.
Linux, with few vendors supporting the open source platform and virtually no global presence, barely scraped together a single percentage point of market share during the quarter. Most vendors have transitioned to Android and those that remain have limited presence within specific markets. It should be noted that IDC includes Linux-branded shipments in these numbers, and excludes Android-branded shipments. Several other branded variations of Linux, including Firefox, Tizen, and SailFish, are expected to launch later this year, providing a potential boost to volumes and market share.
Top Smartphone Operating Systems, Shipments, and Market Share, 2013 Q3 (Units in Millions)
Source: IDC Worldwide Mobile Phone Tracker, August 7, 2013
Note: Data are preliminary and subject to change. Vendor shipments are branded shipments and exclude OEM sales for all vendors.
Source: International Data Corporation
Well, android is not leaving any prisoners, isn’t it?
Tim & Co. need to step it up. Apple can’t claim it’s getting all the profits any longer. They also can’t claim they’re making the best phones, Android (like any platform) has lemmings, but not that many lemmings.
That’s good but it could be even better. Adjoined by the low cost iPhone 5C and a 4.7″ or 4.8″ iPhone Plus, the iPhone lineup will be in a much better position to conquer the challenges of the global smartphone landscape. The doctrine of a one size fits all iPhone needs to come to an abrupt end.
Yes and should have done it over a year ago which shows how slow to react they have been. Reminds me of the Sculley years. It’s going to cost more now with possibly less impact in the market place doing so now sadly so belatedly. They really do need to move up a gear if not 2.
They are coming but they are a bit late indeed. At least the 5C will be here soon. The larger iPhone is apparently a ways off still.
Remember that what was released a year ago would’ve had to been worked on maybe two years prior. Tim Cook was not the CEO then. It could be that a change of direction wasn’t even seriously explored until after they had a change of leadership. So we’ll see in the next year or two whether or not Tim agrees with the one phone for all philosophy.
So if I’m reading the chart correctly 80% of smartphones shipped last quarter were Android. Where’s the chart that shows how many were actually delivered, purchased, activated, and remain activated?
The best indication of how many Android devices being meaningfully activated is to be seen in web usage stats, which rather inexplicably tell a different story to the one about unverified activation claims or estimated shipping numbers.
Isn’t Eric the Mole touting 6 or 15 billion activations per day about now?
how many Androis phones replaced feature phones?
Or, what is the comparison for all (smart+featuer) phones, did they grow by more or less than iOS (20%) ?
I suspect its low end feature phone replacements that have by far the biggest growth figures which makes Apples figures look worse than they are which would mirror tablets.
Data lies. Incomplete data lies completely.
Everyone’s been blowing up about Android shipments the past two days. Pepsi shipped a lot of Crystal Pepsi, but I’m not sure it did them any good. How about those Surface RT shipments? They didn’t cost a billion dollars or anything…
Am I misunderstanding the system when I assume that data gleaned from shipment numbers pales in comparison to units sold and customer satisfaction? Sure, this COULD reflect relevant information, but it COULD mean nothing at all, right? Tell me what I missed.
The MDN headline would be less misleading if it read:
“IDC: Android 73.5% YOY growth in Q213; iOS 20%”
… and yes, I know that nobody here cares about the market share that Apple leaves on the table. Many of you have convinced yourselves that Apple couldn’t possibly make any money selling to the 187.4 million people that chose Android over he iPhone. You would be wrong. Apple needs to find inroads into the mass market to achieve long-term prosperity.
I hate to see Cook continue to fiddle. Worst case, we are watching the Mac OS vs Windows OS story play out all over again in slow motion, except this time copycat Google may own 85+% of the mobile OS market. Apple’s app store slows down the migration, but the migration certainly hasn’t stopped. Apple should not act surprised when it wakes up to find that their HUGE lead from the Jobs era evaporated while Apple released timid little tweaks to its handset at less than half the pace of any single other handset maker. Eventually, as Apple allows itself to play the role of the highly profitable by very niche Porsche of the mobile industry, the mass market GM and Ford and ToyoHondaNissKiaHyundubaru mass market cars will sponge up more and more of the total profits. Already the Android platform is attracting a surprising number of developers.
Without a family of iPhones that offer prospective smartphone buyers superior Apple value at multiple sizes and price points, the erosion will only continue. How long, perhaps 5 years before the iTunes app store money-printing machine may be running in second place to Google’s? How horrid would that be?
Yes a very bad tactical error on Apples part and I love to know who in the management structure is to blame for this misstep which may go back as far as SJ considering product timescales. Apple does not have to flood the market for phones or tablets but surely 20% would have been the aim to hit hat sweet spot of profits and volumes. His is now looking totally out of their grasp sadly. A family of phones could have given them a shot at that and would certainly have protected their top half of the market which is where the profits are while sustaining a market potential for services and related products that would far outweigh any initial hit on margins..
Am I off base to assume the “writing on the wall” is that in the next five years Google will drop Android altogether on its own phones for a Chrome OS that is less open than Android (with fewer lawsuits) at which point Samsung will fully jump behind Tizen and Amazon may even develop its own OS?
It’s hard to predict anything five years out; this market is barely even that old.
Much sooner than five years. Probably within 1 to 2 years.