Apple's Beats brand in April unveiled the Powerbeats Pro, a redesigned wire-free version of its popular fitness-oriented Powerbeats earbuds.
iPhone and Android Duopoly Nears Peak With Estimated 99.9% Market Share Last Year
A record 99.9 percent of smartphones sold worldwide last year were based on either Android or iOS, as all competing platforms have effectively been squeezed out, according to data shared today by research firm Gartner.
Android remains more widely adopted than iOS by a significant margin, with a roughly 86-14 percent split between the respective operating systems last year. Android's dominance is unsurprising given the software is installed on dozens of different smartphone models offered at a range of price points, whereas the iPhone primarily caters to the high-end market.
Android and iOS have been the leading mobile operating systems for many years now, but the duopoly became so dominant last year that Gartner doesn't even break out BlackBerry and Windows Phone individually anymore. Together, the platforms accounted for less than 0.1 percent market share in 2017.
For perspective, Gartner estimates that of the just over 1.5 billion smartphones sold worldwide last year, handsets running BlackBerry OS, Windows Mobile, and all other platforms made up only 1.5 million of the total.
The writing has long been on the wall for BlackBerry and Windows Phone, which have been ceding market share to Apple and Google for the better part of the last decade. But with Android and iOS finally reaching 99.9 percent market share, it looks like the platforms will be officially dead soon enough.
In the meantime, BlackBerry recently announced it will continue to support its BlackBerry 10 operating system for at least two more years, but it encourages customers to upgrade to its Android-based smartphones manufactured by TCL. BlackBerry World and other legacy services will shut down by the end of 2019.
Back in October, Microsoft likewise announced that it will continue to support Windows 10 Mobile with security updates and bug fixes, but it will no longer develop new features or release any new Windows Phones.
The fall of BlackBerry in particular is remarkable given it was the pioneer of the smartphone industry. Its devices actually continued to grow in popularity for around two years after the iPhone launched in June 2007, at the expense of then-leading Nokia, with a peak market share of around 20 percent in 2009.
It only took a few years until the surging popularity of iPhones and Samsung Galaxy smartphones led iOS and Android to leapfrog BlackBerry and Nokia, and based on today's data, the duopoly is now firmly entrenched.
Android remains more widely adopted than iOS by a significant margin, with a roughly 86-14 percent split between the respective operating systems last year. Android's dominance is unsurprising given the software is installed on dozens of different smartphone models offered at a range of price points, whereas the iPhone primarily caters to the high-end market.
Android and iOS have been the leading mobile operating systems for many years now, but the duopoly became so dominant last year that Gartner doesn't even break out BlackBerry and Windows Phone individually anymore. Together, the platforms accounted for less than 0.1 percent market share in 2017.
For perspective, Gartner estimates that of the just over 1.5 billion smartphones sold worldwide last year, handsets running BlackBerry OS, Windows Mobile, and all other platforms made up only 1.5 million of the total.
The writing has long been on the wall for BlackBerry and Windows Phone, which have been ceding market share to Apple and Google for the better part of the last decade. But with Android and iOS finally reaching 99.9 percent market share, it looks like the platforms will be officially dead soon enough.
In the meantime, BlackBerry recently announced it will continue to support its BlackBerry 10 operating system for at least two more years, but it encourages customers to upgrade to its Android-based smartphones manufactured by TCL. BlackBerry World and other legacy services will shut down by the end of 2019.
Back in October, Microsoft likewise announced that it will continue to support Windows 10 Mobile with security updates and bug fixes, but it will no longer develop new features or release any new Windows Phones.
The fall of BlackBerry in particular is remarkable given it was the pioneer of the smartphone industry. Its devices actually continued to grow in popularity for around two years after the iPhone launched in June 2007, at the expense of then-leading Nokia, with a peak market share of around 20 percent in 2009.
It only took a few years until the surging popularity of iPhones and Samsung Galaxy smartphones led iOS and Android to leapfrog BlackBerry and Nokia, and based on today's data, the duopoly is now firmly entrenched.
[ 153 comments ]
Top Rated Comments
(View all)
20 months ago
October 19, 2010
“We’ve now passed RIM. And I don’t see them catching up with us in the foreseeable future. They must move beyond their area of strength and comfort, into the unfamiliar territory of trying to become a software platform company. I think it’s going to be a challenge for them to create a competitive platform and to convince developers to create apps for yet a third software platform after iOS and Android”.
Steve Jobs
Steve Balmer on iPhone:
[MEDIA=youtube]eywi0h_Y5_U[/MEDIA]
Case closed.
“We’ve now passed RIM. And I don’t see them catching up with us in the foreseeable future. They must move beyond their area of strength and comfort, into the unfamiliar territory of trying to become a software platform company. I think it’s going to be a challenge for them to create a competitive platform and to convince developers to create apps for yet a third software platform after iOS and Android”.
Steve Jobs
Steve Balmer on iPhone:
[MEDIA=youtube]eywi0h_Y5_U[/MEDIA]
Case closed.
20 months ago
And why is a higher market share better?
If Apple has the higher market share then it’s better, otherwise we only care about profits.
20 months ago
Does Gartner also consider resale or previously owned devices? More resilient iPhones may have longer second lives as hand me downs which can increase its marketshare beyond what is reflected in initial sales numbers.
For a phone to be resold it has to first be sold. You reselling it 10 times doesn't increase the number of them in existence.
20 months ago
Just think what Apple’s market share might be if their phones were $50 to $100 cheaper...
Just think how cool it would be if unicorns were real...
20 months ago
Does Gartner also consider resale or previously owned devices? More resilient iPhones may have longer second lives as hand me downs which can increase its marketshare beyond what is reflected in initial sales numbers.
20 months ago
Just think what Apple’s market share might be if their phones were $50 to $100 cheaper...
The same.
20 months ago
And why is a higher market share better?
Without a sizable market share developers will suffer and without developers and apps the ecosystem is dead.
20 months ago
I wish Windows phone would have made it instead of Google. For the same reasons I use my iPhone with a Mac, Microsoft users should be able to “take their OS with them” as well.
[ Read All Comments ]
Earlier this summer, Mophie announced and launched a new line of Juice Pack Air cases for the iPhone XS and XS Max, which promise to add extra hours of battery life to your iPhone while providing...
After offering a look at its upcoming streaming service Disney+, and announcing a bundle with ESPN+ and Hulu, Disney today confirmed the devices that will support Disney+ at launch. For Apple device...
Spotify is launching a new content filter feature for its Family Plan to give parents and guardians better control over what their children listen to.
The owner of the family plan master...
More details have emerged about the unreleased portable Bluetooth speaker from Sonos, thanks to new images shared by WinFuture (via The Verge).
The German site has published several marketing...
Version 17 of Ulysses was released today, bringing some much-requested features to the popular Mac and iOS app for writers.
First up, the developers have brought keyword management to the iOS...
Apple today sent out emails to customers about its latest Apple Pay promo, which will see the company donating $10 to the National Park Foundation for Apple Pay purchases made from the Apple...
We're just a few weeks away from the unveiling of this year's iPhone lineup as well as the official release of iOS 13 and Apple's other new operating system versions, and we're...
For this week's giveaway, we've teamed up with RAVPower to offer MacRumors readers a chance to win a 61W USB-C Power Adapter and a USB-C to Lightning cable, which can be used to fast charge...
