Smartphone market share for Android and iOS expanded...

Smartphone market share for Android and iOS expanded to 96.4 percent in Q2, “leaving little space for competitors,” said a report from IDC Thursday. Android was the dominant growth driver, with 255.3 million smartphones shipping in Q2, up 33 percent year-over-year, while iOS share shrank on growth of 12.7 percent, IDC said (http://bit.ly/1phRbyI). Windows Phone was down 10 percent and BlackBerry-based smartphones 78 percent, it said. The worldwide smartphone market topped 300 million unit shipments for the first time in the quarter, reaching 301.3 million units, a 25 percent jump from the 240.5 million smartphones shipped in Q1 2013, IDC said. “Android has been reaping huge gains within emerging markets,” said Ramon Llamas, research manager, saying 58 percent of worldwide Android smartphones shipped cost less than $200 off contract. Among operating systems, Windows Phone has been around since 2010 but has yet to break the 5 percent share mark, said Melissa Chau, senior research manager. Despite Samsung’s leadership position in smartphones, it hasn’t been able to push the Tizen operating system into the spotlight, she said. Stumbling blocks preventing other operating systems from gaining traction are phone makers and app developers, with the latter primarily “smaller outfits looking to minimize development efforts by sticking to the two big ecosystems,” she said. Within the Android sphere, Samsung led with 29 percent of Android-driven shipments, but its share fell from 40 percent over the past two years, while Coolpad, Huawei, Lenovo, LG, Xiaomi and ZTE all grew, IDC said. Based on Apple’s history, IDC expects it to receive a late-Q3 boost from next-generation iPhone sales. “Whether or not this happens again this year remains to be seen, especially with the anticipated arrival of large-screen iPhones,” IDC said.