Android rules in mobile communications

The Android and iOS mobile platforms rule the mobile communications market, according to the most recent numbers from Strategy Analytics, which reports that the two formats totally dominate the sector, possessing a 92 percent market share in 2012 through global sales of 700.1 million.

Of the two market leaders, Android has powered ahead over the past year and now has a more than three-to-one supremacy over iOS. Of total shipments of 700.1 million last year, 479 million were Android-based, leaving iOS with 135.8 million.

It’s still a competitive market, however, and the company’s Neil Mawston predicts that in 2013 Android’s big challenge will be to maintain and grow its dominance in the face of an emerging wave of opposition from significant companies like Apple, Microsoft, Blackberry, Firefox and Tizen.

Q4-2012 saw Android smartphones double their popularity from 80.6 million in the fourth quarter of 2011 to 152.1 million in Q4 2012.Over the same period Apple reported an increase from 37 million in Q4-2011 to 47.8 million in Q4-2012.

“The worldwide smartphone industry has effectively become a duopoly as consumer demand has polarized around mass-market Android models and premium Apple designs,” said Scott Bicheno, an analyst at Strategy Analytics.