Shipments of Android-based smartphones surged sevenfold on-year to 33 million, driven by strong sales from handset makers such as South Korea’s Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. (005930.SE) and Taiwan’s HTC Corp. (2498.TW), Canalys said. That growth gave Android a 33% share of the worldwide smartphone platform market in the fourth quarter, ahead of Symbian’s 31% and Apple Inc.’s (AAPL) iPhone operating system with 16%.
Apple’s market share dropped by 0.3 percentage points to 16 percent, despite shipments growing from 8.7 to 16.2 million iPhones. The company still sets the benchmark for usability and the size of its ecosystem of partners and developers, Cunningham said.
RIM’s market share dropped from 20 percent to 14.4 percent, despite shipments growing from 10.7 to 14.6 million smartphones. The fact that RIM recaptured first place from Apple in the U.S sales ranking may offer some consolation.
Windows Phone 7-based smartphones appeared too late in the quarter to take full advantage of holiday season purchasing. As a result, Microsoft’s worldwide market share dropped from 7.2 percent to 3.1 percent. Sales of Windows Phone 7 smartphones have been steady, not spectacular, so far, Cunningham said.
According to the WSJ, for the first time since joining the company last year, Elop hinted that Nokia was considering taking on another operating system in addition to Symbian, as consumers choose smartphones not just based on hardware, but also software and services, an area where Nokia needs to regain its edge.
“Nokia faces some significant challenges in our competitiveness and our execution,” Chief Executive Stephen Elop said at the time.
Speculation is rife that Elop may be planning to adopt Android for some phones, perhaps in the mid-to-low tier of the market, while it has high hopes at the premium end for its new MeeGo platform
