Android To Hit 80 Percent Market Share This Year — Report

Smartphone growth continues according to the latest “shipments share” numbers from IDC. The firm anticipates Android will reach 80 percent global market share this year but decline to roughly 77 percent in four years largely because of Windows Phone growth. The iPhone remains strong in developed markets and weak in developing markets where the handset […]

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Smartphone growth continues according to the latest “shipments share” numbers from IDC. The firm anticipates Android will reach 80 percent global market share this year but decline to roughly 77 percent in four years largely because of Windows Phone growth.

The iPhone remains strong in developed markets and weak in developing markets where the handset is too expensive for many. The report acknowledges the potential positive impact of a larger-screen iPhone but doesn’t believe that will significantly affect Apple’s global market share.

IDC smartphone forecast 2018

IDC sees Windows Phone handset share growing from 3.5 percent globally to more than 6 percent in 2018. On a percentage basis Windows Phone growth “will outpace the market.” BlackBerry by contrast is almost gone by 2018, one of the most spectacular corporate collapses in recent history.

It’s unclear how Nokia will fare under the Nadella regime. Former CEO Steve Ballmer was the architect of the acquisition. When asked at the Code Conference whether he favored buying the Nokia hardware business, Nadella expressed pretty open ambivalence saying “I’m not going to answer that.”

Google/Android’s continuing OS success may bring increasing regulatory scrutiny around the world (though not in the US). While Android is technically an “open” operating system its major strains (much of the global market share) is fairly tightly controlled by Google.


Opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily MarTech. Staff authors are listed here.


About the author

Greg Sterling
Contributor
Greg Sterling is a Contributing Editor to Search Engine Land, a member of the programming team for SMX events and the VP, Market Insights at Uberall.

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