2013 will be forever remembered as the first time smartphone shipments broke the billion barrier worldwide.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, given its broad developmental and commercial uptake, Android was the operating system of the vast majority of those sales. Approximately 793.6 million Android phones were shipped, forming a 78.6% market share.
Equally unsurprisingly, iOS was a strong second place – no mean feat given its exclusivity to top-end Apple iPhones. 153.4 million shipments equates a 15.2% market share for the California tech icons.
At a glance you might think the figures look grim for Windows, but the world’s tertiary mobile OS grew 1% in market share, which manifested in the form of doubled shipments – 33.4 million to be precise.
One company that is struggling is Blackberry. Their issues have been well-known for some time now, and these figures will only serve to further compound their misery – a loss of 2.6% market share, half the number of units shipped, and an annual revenue downturn of almost 41% compared to 2012.
Amongst the heavily populated Android market it was Samsung who proved the dominant manufacturer, comprising an impressive 39.5% of all Android shipments. All the more impressive when you consider Samsung’s focus on premium devices versus the growith in the sub-$200 smartphone market to 42.6% of global volume.