Smartphone vendors shipped a total of 301.3 million smartphones worldwide in the second quarter of 2014, up 25.3% year-on-year, according to IDC.
Android was the primary driver with vendors shipping a total of 255.3 million Android-based smartphones, up 33.3%. Meanwhile, iOS saw its market share decline to 12.7%.
While Android and iOS – which accounted for 84.7% and 11.7% of the market volume, respectively -- both realized gains from a year ago, the rest of the market recorded losses.
“With many of its OEM partners focusing on the sub-$200 segments, Android has been reaping huge gains within emerging markets,” says Ramon Llamas, research manager with IDC's Mobile Phone team. “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.”
Llamas added that 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.
Android reached a new record for market share during second quarter, nearly doubling its share from just three years ago. As for iOS, IDC believes it may have reached its lowest quarterly volume for the year.
Melissa Chau, senior research manager with IDC's Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, observed that it's been an 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.