Android is the dominant operating system with nearly 85 percent of the market while Apple’s iOS has nearly 12 percent, leaving little space for competitors such as Microsoft’s Windows Phone or BlackBerry. And the market continues to move towards Android-based smartphones where sales were up 33.3 percent year-on-year. Apple’s iOS increased sales by 12.7 percent year-on-year but lost market share to Android. The others all saw declining sales and market share.
Top five smartphone operating systems in terms of worldwide shipments and market share in 2Q14 (units in millions). Source: IDC.
"It’s been an incredible upward slog for other OS players – Windows Phone has been around since 2010 but has yet to break the 5-percent share mark, while the backing of the world’s largest smartphone player, Samsung, has not boosted Tizen into the spotlight," said Melissa Chau, senior research manager with IDC, in a statement.
Samsung is leading the Android charge but with others including Coolpad, Huawei, Lenovo, LG, Xiaomi, and ZTE ramping up their involvement. Windows Phone is seeing declining volumes as its list of OEM partners has remained static. There is the possibility of better sales in 2H14 as some different vendors come on board including Foxconn, Gionee, JSR, Karbonn, Lava, Lenovo, LG, Longcheer, and ZTE.