14 DAY TRIAL // Google’s Android operating system has had yet another great three months in the third quarter of 2012, a recent report from Gartner shows.
The mobile operating system accounted for 72.4 percent market share in the time frame, up from only 52.5 percent in the third quarter of last year.
The overall sales of mobile phones went down by 3.1 percent when compared to the same quarter a year ago, to only 428 million units, the company notes.
The research firm also notes that smartphones accounted for 39.6 percent of total mobile phone sales in the third quarter of the year, which marked an increase of 46.9 percent when compared to the third quarter of 2011.
“In the smartphone market, Android continued to increase its market share, up 19.9 percentage points in the third quarter of 2012,” the research firm notes.
“With the launch of iPhone 5, Gartner analysts expect iOS share will grow strongly in the fourth quarter of 2012 because users held on to their replacements in many markets ahead of the iPhone 5 wider roll out.”
Apple’s iOS platform took the second position on the market with a 13.9 percent share, down from the 15 percent it accounted for a year ago. Research In Motion managed to ship 8.9 million devices to end users in the quarter, while also climbing to the third spot on the smartphone OS market, as Symbian is nearing its end.
“Although RIM lost market share, it climbed to the No. 3 position as Symbian is nearing the end of its lifecycle,” the company notes.
“There was also channel destocking in preparation of new device launches for RIM, which resulted into 8.9 million sales to end users in the third quarter of 2012.”
Microsoft’s Windows Phone enjoyed a market share of 2.4 percent, yet Gartner suggests that its performance has been greatly affected by the wait for Windows Phone 8 devices.