IDC’s 2Q13 Smartphone Share Report: It’s iOS vs. Android, and Windows Phone vs. Everyone Else

If you look at IDC’s 2Q13 figures on smartphone operating system market share, it boils down to two fights. There’s the one with the two giants in first and second place:

And then there’s this one:

First, IDC’s numbers…

	Android	iOS	Windows Phone	BlackBerry
Place in market	1	2	3	4
2Q13 unit shipments (millions)	187.4	31.2	8.7	6.8
2Q13 market share	79.3%	13.2%	3.7%	2.9%
2Q12 unit shipments (millions)	108	26	4.9	7.7
2Q12 market share	69.1%	16.6%	3.1%	4.9%
Year-over-year change	+73.5%	+20%	+77.6%	-11.7%

Some observations:

Windows Phone

• Having had the biggest year-over-year growth of all the smartphone OSs, Windows Phone has pretty much locked its position in third place.
• The vast majority — 81.6% — of all Windows Phone shipments were from Nokia.

iOS

• IDC Research Manager Ramon Llamas says: “The iOS decline in the second quarter aligns with the cyclicality of iPhone. 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.”
• In spite of having lost market share, iOS still grew shipments by 20%.

Android

• There were more Android phones shipped in 2Q13 (187.4 million) than the sum of all smartphones — Android, iOS, Windows Phone, BlackBerry and others — shipped during the same period in 2012 (156.2 million).
• Android shipments grew at a rate nearly as great as Windows Phone’s — 73.5% over 2012 — and in Android’s case, a percentage point of growth represents a much, much bigger number.
• Android’s biggest vendors: Samsung was the biggest, followed by LG, Huawei, Lenovo and ZTE.

BlackBerry

• BlackBerry’s market share dropped below 3%, and as IDC puts it, sank to “levels not seen in the history of IDC’s Mobile Phone Tracker”.
• Ouch.