International Data Corporation is reporting that Android powered roughly 75 percent of all smartphones that released in Q3 2012. This last quarter saw 136 million Android smartphones shipped, up 91.5 percent year-over-year.
For Apple they saw 26.9 million iOS smartphones shipped in Q3. Thanks to the launch of the iPhone 5, this gave the company 57.3 percent year-over-year growth and roughly 15 percent of the market.
Windows smartphones saw a 140 percent increase in shipped handsets over the third quarter of 2011, though this was only good enough for 3.6 million smartphones total, or 2 percent of the market. BlackBerry and Symbian continue to falter, and software support was the cited reason.
“The share decline of smartphone operating systems not named iOS since Android’s introduction isn’t a coincidence,” said IDC senior research analyst Kevin Restivo. “The smartphone operating system isn’t an isolated product, it’s a crucial part of a larger technology ecosystem. Google has a thriving, multi-faceted product portfolio. Many of its competitors, with weaker tie-ins to the mobile OS, do not. This factor and others have led to loss of share for competitors with few exceptions.”
