The report by the research firm Strategy Analytics confirms the dominance of Android, which has extended its lead over Apple's iOS, used on the iPhone.
"There is little doubt that 2013 was the year of Android," said Neil Mawston, analyst with the consultancy.
"However, Android's annual growth slowed to 62% in 2013, its lowest level in the platform's history. We expect Android's growth to slow further in 2014 due to market saturation and rivals like Microsoft or Firefox standing by to pounce on any signs of a major slowdown for Android this year," said Mawston.
The report said Apple's global market share slipped to 15.5% last year, down from 19.4% in 2012. Meanwhile Windows Phone grabbed third place with a 3.6% share, up from 2.7% a year earlier.
"Microsoft is now firmly established as the smartphone industry's third major ecosystem, shipping 35.7m units worldwide," Mawston said.
"However, the Windows Phone platform is still struggling to gain traction in the low-tier and premium-tier smartphone categories and the serious weaknesses that Microsoft has will need to be addressed this year."
Strategy Analytics said global smartphone sales rose 41% last year to 990m units. A report released earlier this week by IDC said the total was just over one billion, with Samsung the largest vendor at 31.3%.
Source: AFP via I-net Bridge
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