A latest statistic report from a market intelligence firm, IDC, places Android on top of the world mobile OS market share in 2013 with nearly 80 percent devices using the platform, while iOS's share has declined.
Android versus iOS is an ongoing debate. Both have ardent fans , who are ready to vouch for their favorite OS. While it may seem both rival platforms compete closely, a latest report shows Android wins over iOS with a vast margin. The renowned market intelligence firm, International Data Corporation, IDC, gathered data for the mobile OS market in 2013 and comfortably placed Android on top of the list.
According to the report, Google-owned Android not only dominated the smartphone market share in 2013, but also showed continuous growth over the years. Android powered 78.6 percent smartphones shipped globally in 2013, a significant boost from 69 percent in 2012 and 49.2 percent in 2011. As for Apple's premium iOS platform, the smartphone's shipments dropped 3.6 percent since 2012,coming up to only 15.2 percent in 2013. But Apple and Google had the maximum number of smartphones shipped worldwide.
"Clearly, there was strong end-user demand for both Android and iOS products during the quarter and the year," Ramon Llamas, Research Manager with IDC's Mobile Phone team, said in apress release. "What stands out are the different routes Android and Apple took to meet this demand. Android relied on its long list of OEM partners, a broad and deep collection of devices, and price points that appealed to nearly every market segment."
"Apple's iOS, on the other hand, relied on nearly the opposite approach: a limited selection of Apple-only devices, whose prices trended higher than most. Despite these differences, both platforms found a warm reception to their respective user experiences and selection of mobile applications," Llamas added.
The other mobile platforms including Windows Phone and Blackberry did not have a huge impact in the global smartphone OS market share in 2013. Microsoft's Windows Phone OS, which currently powers only Nokia Lumia series, accounted for 3.3 percent share of global unit shipments of smartphones in 2013. This is still a victory for the emerging mobile OS as its presence in the smartphone market has increased 1.5 percent since 2011.
On the other hand, BlackBerry lost big on the global OS market share, with only 1.9 percent units shipped in 2013. The Canadian smartphone maker accounted for 10.3 percent of total smartphone shipments in 2011, which dropped to 4.5 percent in 2012 as the ailing company put up a "for sale" sign.
