Android dominates, BlackBerry market share slides globally
BlackBerry is now No. 4, behind Microsoft, in worldwide market share, says a new Gartner survey. The Android operating system dominates with 79 percent market share.
BlackBerry is now No. 4, behind Microsoft, in worldwide market share, says a new Gartner survey. The Android operating system dominates with 79 percent market share.
Remember the days when the BlackBerry was听迟丑别 smartphone of choice, and the iPhone was a pricey new luxury item just making its debut?
Well, those days are long gone.
Among smartphone operating systems, Microsoft overtook BlackBerry for the first time, taking the No. 3 spot with 3.3 percent of the global market share, according to a study released by Gartner on Wednesday. Android鈥檚 OS continued to dominate the OS market, earning 79 percent of second quarter market share, while Apple鈥檚 iOS is in second place at 14.2 percent.
Samsung, which runs on the Android OS, remained in the No. 1 spot for the number of mobile devices sold. The company鈥檚 sales grew by 19 percent in the second quarter. Samsung鈥檚 success is a sign of high demand for smartphones that sell for $400-and-below, says Gartner's principle research analyst Anshul Gupta. 鈥淚t will be critical for Samsung to step up its game in the mid-tier, and also to be more aggressive in emerging markets,鈥� explains Mr. Gupta in the report's news release.
Nokia鈥檚 sales are down from where they were a year ago, largely due to a decline in the demand for 鈥渇eature phones,鈥� or non-smartphone devices. But the recent release of Nokia鈥檚 Lumia phone has widened the company鈥檚 portfolio, which has contributed to an increase in the company鈥檚 quarterly sales, says Gupta.
Meanwhile the sale of Apple phones has continued to grow, but the average sales price is dropping 鈥� now at it's lowest level since 2007 鈥� because the iPhone 4S is retailing at the lowest price since the iPhone鈥檚 launch.聽 Gupta and other analysts are concerned that the rumored low-priced plastic iPhone 5C (as in Cheap), could hurt future Apple revenues.
鈥淎lthough the possible new lower-priced device may be priced similarly to the iPhone 4 at $300 to $400, the potential for cannibalization will be much greater than what is seen today with the iPhone 4." he warns.
Samsung recently announced its plan to launch the new Galaxy Note on Sept. 4, six days before Apple scheduled its launch part for the much anticipated iPhone 5S. 聽