Android Is Steadily Devouring Apple’s Market Share In Key World Markets

Smartphones that run on the Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) iOS and Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) Android mobile operating system combined accounted for more than 93 percent of all smartphone shipments during the first quarter of 2013, according to the International Data Corporation’s Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker.

Android vendors, like Samsung and HTC, shipped a total of 162.1 million units worldwide, up 79.3 percent from the 90.3 million units it shipped in the same time frame last year, according to the IDC report.

Even though Apple sold more iPhones in terms of pure volume in the first quarter of this year -- 37.4 million, compared to 35.1 million in the same period last year -- growth in shipments has been declining. The overall market share of its mobile iOS has also been shrinking.

For the first time, Windows (NASDAQ:MSFT) phones scraped past BlackBerry (NASDAQ: BBRY) and were the third most-shipped phones in that time period.

Both BlackBerry and Symbian posted large year-over-year declines in shipments and market share. However, BlackBerry’s new BB10 platform might help the smartphone maker bounce back.

There’s not too much hope left for Symbian, however. According to the IDC report, shipment of phones that run on Symbian are in steep decline and will sell in drastically lower volumes in 2014.

Here’s a look at smartphone operating system sales in the second quarter of 2013 in a few key market around the world, based on data from a recent Kantar report:

As can be seen from the chart, Android-powered phones have the deepest penetration in every market. Android’s market share increased 15.9 percentage points year-over-year, from 59.1 percent of all phones sold in three months that ended in March 2012 to 75 percent in March 2013, according to the IDC report.

Even in the U.S., where Apple phones are most ubiquitous, Android pulled ahead of iPhone, accounting for 52 percent of all smartphone sales. Hover over any slice of the pie chart to see which smartphone held what percentage of the market share in that time:

Here’s a breakdown of the smartphone models that sold the most in the first quarter of 2013: