As emerging markets grow, Android extends smartphone lead

The Google-powered operating system was used in 84.7 percent of smartphones sold worldwide in the quarter, up from 83.3 percent a year earlier, the Gartner survey showed.

Apple and its iOS operating system meanwhile lifted its market share to 13.1 percent from 12.5 percent a year ago.

The two dominant systems left little for Windows Phone, which saw its market share slip to 1.7 percent from three percent, and Blackberry, down to 0.3 percent from 0.8 percent.

Smartphone sales grew 15.5 percent in the July-September period to 353 million units, with Android accounting for more than 298 million and Apple 46 million, Gartner noted.

But most of the growth was in emerging markets, where sales were up 18.4 percent compared with 8.2 percent for "mature markets," according to the survey.

"The availability of affordable smartphones in emerging markets saw consumers upgrade their 'feature phones' to smartphones more quickly because of the small price gap," said Anshul Gupta, Gartner research director.

Samsung kept its spot as the number one vendor with a 23.7 percent market share to 13.1 percent for number two Apple.

China's Huawei leapt into third place with a share of 7.7 percent, on the back of a 71 percent year-on-year sales jump, Gartner found. Rival Chinese handset markets Lenovo and Xiaomi were in a virtual tie for fourth place with a 4.9 percent market share, Gartner said.

Source: AFP