By Just when you thought the good news for Google had all subsided, another major piece of good news comes in for the “don’t be evil” company. The IDC, one of the world’s most respected and credible analytics firms, is reporting that Android was the king of the third quarter with 75% of all smartphones being sold running the OS.
Think about that — for every 1 smartphone sold last quarter without Android there were 3 more that runs Google’s particular offering. That’s huge news for the Mountain View giant who undoubtedly wants Google Search in the hands of pretty much anyone that cares to have a smart phone.
181.1 million smartphones were shipped in all, so that would put the Android figure at 135.82 million — staggering numbers, if I do say so myself. IDC maintains that Android has outpaced growth expectations every single year since it launched in 2008, and Google continues to best quarterly and yearly expectations set by the likes of Gartner, comScore, Nielsen and the like.
The only other operating system to take double digit percentage was Apple with 14.9% of the share. And beyond the bitten fruit company? The next closest operating system was RIM’s Blackberry, and that only accounted for 4.3%.
Windows Phone is continuing to struggle as it couldn’t even pass the antiquated Symbian, though Microsoft is banking on strong Windows Phone 8 buzz to keep its smartphone hopes afloat. Also, to its credit, Windows Phone was only one of three operating systems that grew (Apple, Google) albeit at a very insignificant rate.
One has to wonder where the tipping point will be for Google. Other competition threatens the “open and free” landscape Google has dominated for four years running, but most of those projects are either on their last breath or have barely taken their first.
iOS has remained relatively stagnant all things considered, though sales of the iPhone 5 will give Apple a much needed injection in the fourth quarter of this year. Beyond that, Google pretty much has a mean sleeper hold on the smartphone market that even Chuck Norris would be proud of, and it doesn’t look to be letting up anytime soon.
[via IDC]
You should see comments by iSheep on other sites as to why this is happening, such as “flooding market with budget OS” as if that’s a bad thing? The people have chosen……
you should go tell them about the galaxy s3 selling over 30 million, more than all three I phones combined which was 26 million and the iPhone 4/4s accounted for most of those sales, Apple only sold 7-8 million iPhones 5s
You mean the S3 that’s been out since June vs the iPhone 5 that been out a little over a month??
Yes but the Galaxy S3 is still doing better, the iPhone 5 sold 7-8 million in a month, the Galaxy S3 sold 9 mill before it even hit store in presales alone. At this rate for the iPhone 5 to reach 30 million sales it would take 6 months considering the first week of sales are always the best, in the 3 weeks following the 5 million sale opening weekend the iPhone 5 only sold an extra 2 million, the Galaxy S3 is still selling strong even though. I love how iPhans are always trying to explain iPhone sales, before the iPhone 5 was released, you guys were all arguing about the low iPhone sales being weak because everyone was waiting for the iPhone 5, now that the iPhone 5 is here the 4s which starts at 50 dollars on contract and the iPhone 4 which is free on contract are outselling it, so whats your explanation now ? and the funny part being you guys make fun of some Android owners because they buy phones that cost less, what hypocrites, you guys do the exacts same thing otherwise the cheap iPhones wouldn’t be the outselling the iPhone 5, 3 to 1.
Sorry sir, hate to burst your bubble, but the 9 million GS3 “Pre-sales” were to carriers, not end-users:http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/9-million-pre-orders-for-the-samsung-galaxy-s3/
which kills your entire argument. the iphone’s pre orders were to actual customers, not carriers pre-ordering based upon anticipated demand….30 million GS3’s over 5 months (June to November) averages to 6 million per month….learn how to do your math, fandroid :-)
And yeah…trust the troll that can’t get the name of the site he is posting on right. My post makes sense….Android this, iPhone that….cock waivers.
What’s this about 6 months, the S3, and “math”?
Someone didn’t factor in that the S3 was not fully available in the US until early July; so for people like you, that’s about 4 months ago; and only a few on AT&T got it towards the end of June. It wasn’t available until “end” of May in Europe, so for people like you, that’s about 5 months ago.
So, what did we learn person that’s prone to join a cult and seems to be out crusading for a dead sociopath? You should redo your math and factor in real numbers this time around… And it wouldn’t hurt to ask for some help! Maybe find an adult?
And great, you’re one of those kids that tries to argue between pre-sales — which by the way, are still units sold — and being in the hands of customers, but “only” when the numbers aren’t in your favor. Wow, you certainly made your point… How dare Samsung sale 9.3 million phones before it even shipped to markets that did not include the US at launch! How dare them!!! Almost 10 million phones sold before it was even released! Oh the shame! … Fast forward about 5 months later and Samsung is the clear front runner to anyone that’s not delusional and can think different.
Tell Sammy to report how many of those sales were to END USERS, the way Apple does: http://sammyhub.com/2012/11/03/samsung-galaxy-s-iii-sales-reach-30-million-units/
They copy everything else that Apple does, so why not copy Apple report the number of sales to actual customers, not telcos, retailers, and distribution channels? Besides, we all know how Sammy likes to play with numbers: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/mobile-news/samsung-comes-clean-galaxy-tab-numbers-not-consumer-sales/775
My math ? the thing you dint account for is that carriers don’t offer pre orders of Apple products through them but they are offered directly on the Apple site while the galaxy S3 could be pre ordered through Samsung and all the separate carriers, those sales weren’t to carriers they were to customers on those carriers. Just like the galaxy note at this moment is up for pre order on At&t’s, verizons and a few other mobile provider sites, how about you research the facts instead of trying to disprove my math.
See reply to your fellow clueless fandroid below
You are comparing more than 5 months of sales (30 million, S3 was launched on May, 29.) to 3 months (26.9 million), and the S3 is new while the iphone (4S) was in the end of its life cycle. During October, November, December Apple will likely sell more than 50 million iphones (3 months), thus iPhone will outsell the S3 by a 3 : 1 margin (600k / day vs 200k / day). Actually, S3 sales decreased from 200k / day to 166k / day during the last 2 months.
S3 is selling at half the rate of iPhone 4S ( Apple sold 60 million iPhone 4S in 5 months, 400k / day).
But why do you care about iPhone sales?
or articles that claims these stats are lies. Love those.
Just jealous that the Galaxy S III is outselling their precious iPhone 5
NOW tablets.
So iphone gained ground but android was 75% sold?
the iPhone only gained ground in the united states but so did Android
The other chart is for “total subscribers” (phone owners), and only for US. This shows that out of all the smartphone sales happening in the last quarter *globally*, 75% of those were Android, and 15% iPhone. This means Android is growing in numbers at a much faster rate than the iPhone (5:1). Right now the difference in total subscribers is not that big (around 500 mil vs 300 or so for iPhones), but with the 5:1 growth rate, the total subscribers should soon be 5:1 Android, too, if the rate is maintained.
3 out of 4 Smart phones….ARE Android phones….FYI.
Prevailing share of Andoid phones are used as dumb phones which in turn means owned by dumb people: http://bgr.com/2012/05/25/apples-mobile-web-traffic-smartphone-tablet/
i love the chart with andy riding it
I don’t care if you only have one phone released a year, that’s your fault. Give users choice. Why do you think 3 out of 4 chose Android? Not only because it’s a great OS, but you have a choice.
I would like to see Apple open up an ice cream shop and just sell vanilla and see how well it does
Actually, they would sell chocolate with the promise they will be coming out with vanilla. But it will take 6 months for them to figure out how to make vanilla ice cream.
No, they’ll sell soy milk ice cream made with synthetic vanilla and charge the same price as real vanilla ice cream
Android is becoming the Windows of smartphones, something I’ve said long ago, but it’s becoming clearer and clearer for everyone else that this is happening. It should get to 80%-85% within a year.
What surprises me is some of the devices that Android is being deployed on…take the Oakley Airwave ski goggles from yesterday for example. As the smartphone market evolves beyond smartphones (implants?), Android should be flexible enough to adapt. I think that’s one key difference from Windows.
awesome, that’s great. keep it going. even tho i love i5 more than my dust collecting gnexus.
I’ll give you twenty bucks for that dust collecting Galaxy Nexus.
Seriously.
I’ll give you 20 dollars AND ONE CENT!
how about $20 and common sense?
Why are you still here with your weak trolls?
What are you talking, I still turn on my gnexus once in a while just to test it. So I’m still an android user.
Go away.
Come on, I’m a i5 user, but I still support android.
All hail Android!
Apple will never out sell Google again but they do sell a lot of mobile devices for one company.Hopefully windows devices take more of apples sells away.
But…but…they told me Android was so complicated and unintuitive that only techie geeks would buy it.
Guess most of the world can cope.
75% against 14,9%… I take the “thermonuclear war” isn’t going well…. :D