Android on a billion smartphones distributed in 2014

Strategy Analytics has published the results of 2014 with regard to the smartphone market: Android is up to a major record, while unable to occupy 81% of the shares of the entire market. Only in 2014 were only distributed commercially approximately 1 billion Android devices. The numbers come from the new analysis published by Strategy Analytics, which show how the operating system Google has occupied 81% market share during the year, followed in the distance,   by iOS with 15%.

It is the first time that Google reaches the milestone of one billion devices distributed on an annual basis, with a number that exceeds substantially the personal record of 780 million units achieved in 2013. The numbers of competitors pale in comparison only: Apple, the second in the ranking, not even reach to 200 million, stopping at an altitude of 192.7 million iOS devices placed in 2014.

We must of course consider that the two giants operate very differently. iOS is a closed platform installed only on a small number of devices, all high-end: Apple has focused mainly on profit margins, the strategy that we can certainly define bankruptcy especially considering the quarterly announced by Cook in recent days.

In contrast, Android is installed on a number of very high-end devices of different price, with Google that is trying to stake everything on lightness and software optimizations for devices less capable. The goal? Attack the emerging markets with very economical solutions, but at the same time pleasant to use. In a distant third place, we find that Microsoft unfortunately reaches only 38.8 million share of Windows Phone distributed during the twelve months under review.

The Redmond giant is unable to repeat the success on the desktop market, which dominated several years ago just like Android on the mobile. The number is up from last year, but the platform still lacks a good support on the part of third-party partners.

Thanks to the impressive numbers of Android, the smartphone market has grown by about 30% during the year, with 1.3 billion units sold in total. The course is about the emerging markets, where China and Indonesia have driven the growth of the sector, as well as continue to do throughout the 2015.