Home > Industry > New Record Smartphone Shipments: 300M!

New Record Smartphone Shipments: 300M!

New Record Smartphone Shipments: 300M!

Smartphone shipments have zoomed past the 300 million mark for the first time, with Android and iOS devices accounting for 96pc of the global market, according to the latest IDC figures

A slightly more precise reported number is 301.3 million units, comprising of 255.3M Androids shipped with 847.pc market share, 35.2M for iOS with 11.7pc market share, 7.4M for Windows Phone with 2.5pc, 1.5M for BlackBerry with 0.5pc and 1.9M in the “Others” category with 0.6pc market share. 


Click to enlarge
IDC’s Worldwide Mobile Phone Tracker figures from August 14, 2014, with IDC’s caveat that “Figures may not be exact due to rounding.”

IDC’s figures show iOS market share declining “despite posting 12.7% year-over-year shipment growth”, and while Android has also released gains of 33.3pc in the same timeframe, the rest of the market recorded losses.


Ramon Llamas, IDC’s Mobile Phone team research manager said: “With many of its OEM partners focusing on the sub-$200 segments, Android has been reaping huge gains within emerging markets

“During the second quarter, 58.6% of all Android smartphone shipments worldwide cost less than $200 off contract, making them very attractive compared to other devices. With the recent introduction of Android One, in which Google offers reference designs below $100 to Android OEMs, the proportion of sub-$200 volumes will climb even higher.”

Melissa Chau, IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker senior research manager said: “It’s been an incredible upward slog for other OS players – Windows Phone has been around since 2010 but has yet to break the 5% share mark, while the backing of the world’s largest smartphone player, Samsung, has not boosted Tizen into the spotlight.

“The biggest stumbling block is around getting enough partnerships in play – not just phone manufacturers but also developers, many of which are smaller outfits looking to minimize development efforts by sticking to the two big ecosystems.”

IDC reports Android reaching a new record for market share during 2Q14, “nearly doubling its share from just three years ago.” 

Samsung accounted for 29.3pc of all Android-powered shipments, down from its 40pc share two years ago. 

Competitors including Coolpad, Huawei, Lenovo, LG, Xiaomi, and ZTE have all grown their respective volumes, with IDC saying they’re all “jockeying for position in the rankings behind Samsung.”


Click to enlarge
Worldwide Smartphone OS share by price tier – IDC.

Using history as a guide, IDC says that “iOS may have reached its lowest quarterly volume for the year”, noting that over the past two years, “third quarter volumes received a boost from shipments of its new devices towards the end of the quarter, resulting in slightly higher volumes compared to the second quarter. Whether or not this happens again this year remains to be seen, especially with the anticipated arrival of large-screen iPhones.”


The news isn’t so good for Microsoft’s Windows Phone devices which have declined from a year ago, but it turns out that when comparing to the previous quarter, “it showed slight improvement, making it the clear number 3 smartphone platform.” 

IDC also says “the list of OEM partners has not changed significantly from a year ago, but that could start to change during the second half of 2014 when numerous vendors within key emerging markets come on board, including BLU, Micromax, Prestigio, Yezz, and others. These join Foxconn, Gionee, JSR, Karbonn, Lava, Lenovo, LG, Longcheer, and ZTE.”

The biggest casualty is Blackberry, which seems to be circling the rim on its way to being flushed right out of the smartphone device market entirely. 

That said, IDC figures show BlackBerry volumes have rebounded slightly from the previous quarter, but remain 78.0pc lower than shipment levels from a year ago. 

IDC notes that BlackBerry is sticking to its new strategy which “saw improvement within one of its key markets, Asia/Pacific, as well as some gains among enterprise users within North America and Western Europe.”

So, perhaps there’s still some juice in BlackBerry’s tank after all, even we all thought it might have been squeezed dry.