300 Million Smartphones – The second quarter is a record
The second quarter of 2014 does mark the exceeding of the threshold of 300 million smartphones delivered. Android is confirmed as the ruler of the market. The global market for smartphones has set a new record in the second quarter of 2014 exceeding for the first time in its history the milestone of 300 million units shipped. According to industry analyst firm IDC, in the quarter were delivered 301.3 million smartphones, an increase of 25.3% compared to 240.5 million devices delivered in the same quarter a year ago.
The two most popular operating systems, Android and iOS, saw their combined market share to reach 96.4% in the quarter, leaving little room for competition. Android is about 255.3 million smartphones delivered in the quarter, with growth and 33% year-on-year, while iOS, even with an increase of 12.7% compared to the second quarter of 2013, a decrease with respect to market shares.
Ramon Llamas, research manager for IDC’s Mobile Phone Team, commented: ” With many of the OEM that focus on the segment below $ 200, Android has been able to collect a broad consensus emerging markets. During the second quarter of the 58.6% of all deliveries of Android smartphones have had a cost of under $ 200, making them very attractive compared to other devices. With the recent introduction of Android One, where Google provides design under $ 100 Android OEMs, the proportion of the volumes of devices under $ 200 will grow in an even more significant. ”
” It’s been an incredible effort for other operating systems. Windows Phone has been around since 2010 but has not yet broken through the 5% market share, while the support of the largest player in the smartphone market, Samsung has not allowed Tizen to carve out a significant place. The biggest obstacle is the lack of sufficient partnership, not just phone manufacturers but also developers, many of which are small and trying to minimize development efforts by staying with the two major ecosystems ” noted Melissa Chau, Senior Research Manager for IDC.
Android reaches a new record in terms of market share in the second quarter of 2014, doubling in three years their market share. And Samsung to lead the charge once again, constituting 29.3% of all delivery’s Android, albeit with a drop from the 40% recorded two years ago. Since then several competitors like Coolpad, Huawei, Lenovo, LG, ZTE and Xiaomi are all grown in terms of volume and are battling for positions behind the Korean giant.
iOS may have reached its lowest quarter in terms of volumes, for the current year in the last two years, the third quarter has always seen an increase due to deliveries of new devices towards the end of the period, with the result that volumes slightly higher than the second quarter. If this could happen still remains to be seen, although the arrival of new models of the iPhone with larger screen sizes should allow history to repeat itself.
The volumes of Windows Phone declined compared to last year, but compared to the previous quarter showed a slight improvement despite the third position among smartphone platforms. OEM partners were not significantly changed compared to a year ago, but this may start to change during the second half of 2014 when several vendors in emerging markets (BLUE, Micromax, Prestige, Yezz) will sit alongside the existing realities (Foxconn, Gionee, JSR, Karbonn, Lava, Lenovo, LG, and ZTE Longcheer).
After three consecutive quarters of decline, the volumes of BlackBerry experienced a significant rebound compared to previous quarters, but remained 78% lower than the levels of deliveries a year ago. In support of its strategy, the BlackBerry has achieved good results in one of its key markets, the Asia / Pacific, as well as some gains among enterprise users in North America and Western Europe.
