Android Tops 81 Percent of the Smartphone Market
In spite of all of Apple's recent success and the launch of the new batch of iPhones and iPads, Android is still the top dog – and more so now than ever before. Google's semi-open source OS topped out at 81.3 percent of total market share in Q3 according to Strategy Analytics.
Android numbers dug into Apple and Blackberry which both saw significant drops in their market share. Windows Phone remarkably doubled its year-on-year phone activations, making it the fastest growing platform by far. Total smartphone shipments in Q3 alone passed 251 million. Blackberry fell from 4 percent to 1 percent, and Apple dropped from 15.6 percent to 13.4 percent.
These figures are absolutely mind-boggling and prove very well that Android's broader approach appealing to both power users and those in the developing world was a spectacular move. The fact that all smartphone shipments grew almost 50 percent is equally incredible. Smartphones aren't just here to stay; they are, quite clearly, the place to be.
Android's continued growth in terms of share is "unlikely" according to the research firm, however. From their blog post, "Apple also lost some ground to Android because of its limited presence at the lower end of the smartphone market. Android will need to take further shipments from Apple if it wants to keep growing in the future, but this is unlikely in the near-term as the new iPhone 5s model is proving popular and it will help Apple to regain volumes worldwide in the fourth quarter of 2013."
Check out the full results here.

Things moving too fast can do that to people. It's okay, I'm sure he'll be fine.
http://www.wpcentral.com/windows-phone-world-fastest-growing-smartphone-operating-system
I wonder if Tom's would bother posting such an article? Probably not seeing as the site hasn't bothered to even review the Surface 2 and Pro 2.
http://www.wpcentral.com/windows-phone-world-fastest-growing-smartphone-operating-system
I wonder if Tom's would bother posting such an article? Probably not seeing as the site hasn't bothered to even review the Surface 2 and Pro 2.
Neat, but as a Windows phone user, I can understand why MS didn't report this. There are multiple ways to spin these numbers negatively, but really only one to spin them positively, which is the one they chose to headline. Fastest growing is all good and fine, but they sold 10.2 million out of over 250 million total units. Fastest growing = small increase in their tiny fraction of market share. They are still a tiny, tiny player - to put this in perspective, Windows phone holds less of the phone market than Apple does of the desktop OS market. Small players warrant limited attention. Sorry to say, this applies to the Surface line of products as well - and I say this as a happy Surface RT owner.
Not that surprising from a site that finishes off the article with "How long until we pass iOS in quarterly shipments with Windows Phone?" You don't identify yourself as "we" in relation to a product unless you're *really* invested.
I am not very fond of having any smartphone manufacturer taking a significant lead over the rest, as only competition leads to better devices and good prices for consumers.
That being said, any manufacturer is better than Apple; because of their closed and over-controlled environment Apple devices are a prime example of what technology should NOT become (tech equivalent of the Third Reich), and this is the main reason of being despised by anyone with half a brain still functioning.
Things moving too fast can do that to people. It's okay, I'm sure he'll be fine.
The iPhone 6 is going to be devastating to every other smartphone company most likely.
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Why is that ?
I am not very fond of having any smartphone manufacturer taking a significant lead over the rest, as only competition leads to better devices and good prices for consumers.
That being said, any manufacturer is better than Apple; because of their closed and over-controlled environment Apple devices are a prime example of what technology should NOT become (tech equivalent of the Third Reich), and this is the main reason of being despised by anyone with half a brain still functioning.
One of the reasons for this is Samsung is about the only OEM out there that gives the customer choice. Their's is about the only phone that still has both an SD slot and a swappable battery.
Apple is going to continue losing market share as long as they keep ignoring sales trends. Android and WP are gaining market share because they don't cater to a single market segment. They have products covering all market segments. Blackberry has just simply, become irrelevant....
They were all apprehensive at first, but now are glad they made the change. They can't stop talking about how Google Now knows everything and about "those wonderful big screens." Not one misses anything about their iPhone. Every app they used was available for Android, and despite the AT&T guy trying to say the iPhone was much easier to use, no one had any problems the transition to Android. All I had to do was explain the back button and app drawer and they were fine.
Next up is dumping the Windows and Mac PCs for Chromebooks.
Because everyone I know is simply waiting for Apple to make a bigger iPhone before dumping their Android crap.
Still trolling the forums with empty hateful posts? Why don;t you comment on the fact Apple is shrinking and will be in single digit market share within a year. Why don;t you comment on the other article posted yesterday showing how inaccurate iphone screens really are? Within the last year I saw 9 friends drop their iphones and bought android phones. 9 out of nine are now on cloud nine! I have not seen one person go from android to iphone except one person and that person came back to android within 6 months!
Yes there are many android phones out there...ITS CALLED CHOICE!
You apple fanatics are proud your company offers you NO CHOICE.
BTW, the top 5 smartphones are not from apple. 4 android phones and 1 windows phone make up the top 5. Apple comes in 6th and that is being generous.
here, you must have missed how iphone screens are horrible:
http://www.tomshardware.com/news/galaxy-s3-beats-iphone-5s-5c-touch-accuracy,24874.html