Apple decimates market by operating system says Nielsen

This week the folks at Nielsen have released their quarterly report on smart devices, this one covering Q2 of 2012 and showing Apple to have more than double the market share of its nearest competitor in terms of smartphone manufacturer share by operating system. This chart shows also that Android of course comes in first as far as operating system market share as a whole goes, but that because this category is comprised of several manufacturers, Apple remains in the lead by a long shot because it owns its entire OS share.

The chart you're seeing from Nielsen shows that Apple's iPhone line alone has 34% of the market under its belt right now, while its nearest competitor, Samsung, works with 17%. Samsung also has several devices – or more than just a few, certainly not just one, as Apple projects itself as having, and each of the manufacturers next down the list: HTC, Motorola, both of them with Android, and RIM, with BlackBerry OS, are each working with hordes of smartphone models as well.

This chart makes BlackBerry seem surprisingly aloof, considering the news that's surrounded the ill-fated RIM over the past few months and years. Of course you should take notice that visuals aren't everything, with Apple's share being more than three times the size of RIM's while the actual box they fit into shows them at less than 2x the space. Android, similarly, has a space that's not even beginning to show how large 51% of the market is – so pay more attention to the numbers than the actual colored boxes, here, folks.

Also be sure to check out our post from last night that explored the rest of the Nielsen report in a bit more detail: Android and iPhone make great gains in Q2, and head to the timeline below to see Nielsen reports from past weeks and months as well.