According to the latest numbers from IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, Google Android shipped on an incredible three out of every four smartphones in Q3 2012. Year-over-year shipments increased 91.5% to account for 136 million units out of the toal 181.1 million smartphones shipped in the quarter.
“Android has been one of the primary growth engines of the smartphone market since it was launched in 2008,” said Ramon Llamas, research manager, Mobile Phones at IDC. “In every year since then, Android has effectively outpaced the market and taken market share from the competition. In addition, the combination of smartphone vendors, mobile operators, and end-users who have embraced Android has driven shipment volumes higher. Even today, more vendors are introducing their first Android-powered smartphones to market.”
Apple iOS was a distant second but still recorded an impressive 57.3% year-over-year growth despite being represented by only three models. The only other OS to show growth was the combination of Windows Phone 7 and Windows Mobile with the former driving the majority of that growth. With a promising lineup, it will be interesting to see if Windows Phone 8 can help Microsoft increase its market share further.
Here are the complete numbers:
| Operating System | 3Q12 Shipment Volumes | 3Q12 Market Share | 3Q11 Shipment Volumes | 3Q11 Market Share | Year-over-year Change |
| Android | 136.0 | 75.0% | 71.0 | 57.5% | 91.5% |
| iOS | 26.9 | 14.9% | 17.1 | 13.8% | 57.3% |
| BlackBerry | 7.7 | 4.3% | 11.8 | 9.5% | -34.7% |
| Symbian | 4.1 | 2.3% | 18.1 | 14.6% | -77.3% |
| Windows Phone 7 / Windows Mobile | 3.6 | 2.0% | 1.5 | 1.2% | 140% |
| Linux | 2.8 | 1.5% | 4.1 | 3.3% | -31.7% |
| Others | 0.0 | 0.0% | 0.1 | 0.1% | -100% |
| Totals | 181.1 | 100.0% | 123.7 | 100.0% | 46.4% |
| Source: IDC Worldwide Mobile Phone Tracker, November 1, 2012 | |||||
It remains clear that this is still a two horse race with Microsoft and RIM with its upcoming BlackBerry 10 OS to fight it out for third.
Read more: IDC