Android tightens grip on smartphone market in second quarter of 2012
guardian.co.uk
Apple squeezed as smartphone sector grows at slowest rate since end of 2009, but together with Samsung makes up half of world sales. Google’s Android mobile operating system tightened its grip on the smartphone market in the second quarter of 2012, making up 68.1% of the 154m shipments worldwide, according to the research company IDC.
Overall, the smartphone market grew at 42.2%, meaning that Android and Microsoft’s Windows Phone were the only platforms which grew faster than the overall market. Shipments of Apple’s iPhone grew by 27.5% to 26m, not enough to maintain its share from last year of 18.8%; its share fell to 16.9%. But overall the market remains a two-horse race, with the two principal platforms – Android and iOS - making up 85% of the market, with the remaining 15% shared between four main platforms.