iOS And Android Combine For 91% Of Smartphone Market Share

It's certainly no surprise that Android and iOS are gobbling up most of the smartphone market share nowadays, with a few stragglers like BlackBerry and Windows Phone. Of course, if you needed proof, IDC has it. The research firm reported that iOS and Android have a combined 91% market share when it comes to smartphone operating systems.

As far as how each operating system is doing, IDC's report shows that Android's Q4 2012 market share was 70.1%, while iOS took hold of 21%. BlackBerry, Windows Phone, Linux, and "Others" accounted for the remaining 8.9%, with BlackBerry coming in third at a measly 3.2% for the quarter. However, perhaps one of the most interesting facets from the statistics are the changes from this time last year.

During Q4 2011, Android had 52.9% of the market share, with Apple at 23%, so Android saw a big jump while Apple had a slight loss. However, BlackBerry dipped big time, going from 8.1% last year to 3.2% this year. Of course, that's not a huge jump, but when you only own a slight portion of market share, each loss is crucial.

In total, smartphone shipments topped out at 227.8 million during the fourth quarter, which is a substantial jump from last year's 160.8 million during Q4 2011. Of course, that's not too surprising, given that smartphones are taking over. Samsung remained a big player this time around as well, accounting for 42% of all Android smartphones for the quarter.

[via Android Community]