ABI Research reports that from the total 280 million smartphones shipped worldwide in 2013 fourth quarter, around 10.9 million units were Windows Phone powered smartphones. This results in a 104 percent year-over-year growth and 19 percent increase for Windows Phone from the 2013 third quarter. Android, however, is at the top once again, with Apple next in the line. According to the report nearly one billion smartphones were shipped in 2013.
Android is leading the way with 78 percent market share as over 221.5 million Android mobile phones were shipped from October through December. Android’s year-over-year growth accounts to 50 percent and increase on sequential basis is 20 percent. Forked Android or AOSP accounted for 25 percent market share with 71 million units shipped (from the total 221.5 million Android units), accounting for 137 percent year-over-year growth in Q4 2013.
Nick Spencer, senior practice director, mobile devices at ABI said
The growth of AOSP is significant for Android’s owner Google, because AOSP does not offer Google’s services (due to their unavailability in China), impacting Google’s ability to monetize the Android ecosystem.
Apple has shipped 51 million mobile iPhones, holding 18 percent of the worldwide smartphone market share, with a 7 percent year-over-year growth and 51 percent increase sequentially.
Windows Phone has reported a steady growth globally, with 104 percent year-over-year growth for Q4, and 19 percent sequential increase. This increase is in line with Microsoft’s claims that “Windows Phone doubled the number of units it shipped year-over-year in Q4”. Despite this increase, Windows Phone managed to garner only 4 percent of the market share in Q4 2013.
BlackBerry 10 has also shipped 1.1 million smartphones, while BlackBerry OS 7 has shipped 4.2 million mobile phones, with 42 percent sequential increase, in the fourth quarter.
