Android has 82% of smartphone market reports Gartner

Research firm Gartner has released its latest report on the state of the smartphone industry around the world for Q3 2013. The numbers show that Android as an operating system is dominating the overall market for smartphones with 82% market share. The numbers also show that Samsung is the largest manufacturer in the industry.

However, it looks like Samsung may have hit a ceiling on growth. Samsung reported a flat market share during the quarter holding at 32% of the overall smartphone market. Gartner shows that there were 455.6 million mobile phones sold during Q3. That is a 5.7% increase compared to the previous report.

Out of the 455.6 million mobile phones sold in Q3 2013, 250 million of those were smart devices powered by Android, iOS, Windows Phone, BlackBerry, and other smart operating systems. Android made a nice gain from Q2 to Q3 with a 79% market share in Q2, growing 3% during Q3. Gartner notes that we are on track to sell 1.81 billion mobile phones for the entire year.

Gartner is predicting that shoppers in mature markets will begin to opt for smaller screen tablets to replace their older smartphones possibly impacting the smartphone growth rate for Q4. Samsung is the top manufacturer in the overall mobile market with 26% market share. Nokia is still in the second spot with 13.8% market share. Nokia sold 63 million mobile phones during the quarter.

Apple current holds 6.7% of the overall mobile sales market having sold 30 million units giving it the third place in the overall market with its smartphone only product line. Despite growth in the industry, a report earlier this week indicated that the average selling price in the smartphone industry is falling opening the door for less profits despite increasing sales.

SOURCE: TechCrunch