Over a billion Android smartphones were shipped last year
Research firm Strategy Analytics has just finished polishing off and publishing a series of reports showing the state of play in the smartphone industry. It says that smartphone shipments grew 30% compared to 2013 and that Android devices accounted for more than 1 billion of the 1.3 billion total units shipped during 2014.
| Global Smartphone OS Shipments (Millions of Units) |
Q4 ’13 | 2013 | Q4 ’14 | 2014 |
| Android | 227.3 | 780.8 | 291.7 | 1042.7 |
| Apple iOS | 51.0 | 153.4 | 74.5 | 192.7 |
| Microsoft | 9.6 | 35.8 | 11.3 | 38.8 |
| Others | 2.3 | 20.0 | 2.6 | 9.3 |
| Total | 290.2 | 990.0 | 380.1 | 1283.5 |
Above data from Strategy Analytics
Android devices are considered more accessible to many consumers as the range of prices at which they are available reaches far lower than for any new Apple iOS smartphone or tablet. Due to pricing it is probably not surprising that Android has become particularly strong in emerging markets such as China and India – which are also major population centres.
Intex Android One smartphone
Every smartphone platform has enjoyed success off the back of the 30% uplift for the year but while Android broke a milestone 1 billion barrier you can also see that Apple iOS did extremely well and that was evidenced in the firm’s recent financial results. In another Strategy Analytics release today you can see individual company shipments. Here you see that Apple has caught up with major Android backer Samsung in sales volume – and probably selling at much higher margins too.
Android is probably racking up a good number of sales outside of smartphones too. Customers are buying more and more entertainment and home appliances which have Android installed on them. However the Strategy Analytics data, tabulated above, is said to count only smartphones.
Looking at Microsoft its gains are perhaps a little disappointing compared to the industry average. As Microsoft is also courting the lower priced mass market smartphone business and its mobiles are more regularly updated and feel faster and more fluid at the low end I don’t understand the slow growth. We do hear of more Windows Phone partners coming along though, for instance Acer is supposed to be showing off new Windows Phones at MWC in a few weeks time.
Source: Strategy Analytics 1, Strategy Analytics 2
