Android And iOS Grab 96.3 Pct In The Global OS Market

BANGALORE: Android and iOS are swaying over the smart phone OS market globally with a combined share of 96.3 percent. That’s a notch higher than their 93.8 percent share in 2013.

Android has outpaced others by leading the market, grabbing a share of 81.5 percent along with shipment volumes up by 32 percent. iOS also witnessed an upsurge in its shipment volumes to $ 192.7 million up by 25 percent  compared to $ 153.4 million in 2013, reports ZD Net.

Although, Apple couldn’t lead the entire market, the final quarter of the last year proved to be glorious for the company. The fourth quarter ushered whooping $ 1.8 billion in profit on $ 74.6 billion revenue catapulted by selling off  74.5 million iPhones.

On the other hand Android also shipped more than a billion phones compared to the $ 802 million in 2013.

"What will bear close observation is how the two operating systems fare in 2015 and beyond," said Ramon Llamas, IDC mobile phone team research manager. "Now that Apple has entered the phablet market, there are few new opportunities for the company to address. Meanwhile, Samsung experienced flat growth in 2014, forcing Android to rely more heavily on smaller vendors to drive volumes higher.

Apple and Google are engaged in two-horse race while who would secure the third place is still more of a scrimmage same meaning. 

“With Microsoft bringing ever-cheaper Lumia into play and Tizen finally getting launched to India early this year, there is still a hunger to chip away at Android's dominance," IDC senior research manager Melissa Chau commented on the battles between small vendors.

Microsoft Windows Phone saw meager increase at 4.2 percent while BlackBerry lost the market share by falling by 69.8 percent in 2014.

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