Google and Apple have managed to take over the mobile market and Android emerged as the winner with the highest market share.
The International Data Corporation (IDC) released its annual statistics of the global OS market share on Tuesday. It stated that over 80 per cent of the devices were running on Google's OS. As Android and iOS together dominate the smartphone OS market, other alternative platforms barely pose a threat.
According to the data, Android's global mobile OS market in 2014 rose to 81.5 per cent from 78.7 per cent in 2013. But, Apple's iOS did not share the same fate as its shares declined from 15.1 per cent in 2013 to 14.8 per cent in 2014, PC World reported.
Although Apple's iOS share dipped last year, the Cupertino tech giant's shipments of iOS devices increased 25.6 per cent. Apple shipped 192.7 million smartphones in 2014 alone, up from 153.4 million in 2013. The success of iPhone 6 and 6 Plus clearly worked well in Apple's favor, but IDC questions Apple's capability to sustain the demand for its iPhones in the future. As for Android smartphones, more than 1 billion units were shipped last year.
There was hardly any competition among the other Operating Systems for the third position.
"Instead of a battle for the third ecosystem after Android and iOS, 2014 instead yielded skirmishes, with Windows Phone edging out BlackBerry, Firefox, Sailfish and the rest, but without any of these platforms making the kind of gains needed to challenge the top two," Melissa Chau, IDC's Senior Research Manager, said in a statement.
In a war among Android OEMs, Samsung retained the top position with a massive lead but the company's total volume remained flat last year, according to IDC. Companies like Huawei, Lenovo (including Motorola), LG Electronics, Xiaomi, and ZTE recorded significant year-on-year growth, largely contributing towards the success of Android.
The data also showed Windows Phone market share dropped from 3.3 per cent in 2013 to 2.7 per cent in 2014 and BlackBerry secured just 0.4 per cent compared to 1.9 per cent in 2013.
