Market share of Android phones rises rapidly

New York: The market leader Nokia lost share year-on-year in the worldwide smartphone market during the third quarter even while it grew the number of phones it sold, according to data released by Gartner.

The market overall grew by 95 per cent from 41 million to 80.5 million, Gartner said. But only Android and "other" phones, principally sold in Asia, grew their market share faster. Even Apple, which saw the number of iPhones sold during the quarter grow by 91 per cent year-on-year, fell back in market share from 17.1 per cent to 16.7 per cent.

Nokia increased the number of phones it sold from 18.3 million to 29.5 million, yet lost share from 44.6 per cent to 36.6 per cent.

But Android phones grew their sales dramatically, leaping from 3.5 per cent to 25.5 per cent to become the second-biggest smartphone OS in a year, replacing Research In Motion, which saw its share fall from 20.7 per cent to 14.8 per cent, falling into fourth position.

The numbers pretty much speak for themselves: Android has gone from a virtual standing start a couple of years ago to a huge competitor — except it's not clear whether it's actually taking any money away from anyone: every platform has grown its numbers.

Separate numbers for the handset vendors show that most of them grew the number of phones sold except LG, Sony Ericsson and Motorola, which respectively sold 4.4 million fewer (down 13.9 per cent on its 2009 number), 3 million fewer (-22.8 per cent) and 4.9 million fewer (-35.6 per cent) than in 2009. Motorola clearly has a huge problem: Google cut the ground out from under it when it launched the Nexus One, and Microsoft is suing it, which might make selling Windows Phone 7 models a challenge (although there are rumours that it will happen).