Android in Q2 grew to 84.7% of smartphone market, 60% under $200 off-contract

IDC released its second quarter report for worldwide smartphone shipments by operating system today and in it noted iOS and Android accounted for 96% of the global market. That number, however, comes only as Android grew on the strength of higher sales of low-cost devices abroad.

The dominant smartphone operating systems (OS), Android and iOS, saw their combined market share swell to 96.4% for the quarter, leaving little space for competitors. Android was the primary driver with its vendor partners shipping a total of 255.3 million Android-based smartphones in 2Q14, up 33.3% year over year. Meanwhile, iOS saw its market share decline despite posting 12.7% year-over-year shipment growth. While Android and iOS both realized gains from a year ago, the rest of the market recorded losses.

Of that 96%, the numbers show Android smartphones collectively grabbed 84.7% of the market with its 255.3 million units shipped, while Apple comes in at 11.7% of the market with 35.2 million units shipped during the quarter. That’s down from 13% last year despite growth in overall shipments for Apple and up from 79.6% last year for Android.

Perhaps most interesting in the report is that during the quarter IDC says “58.6% of all Android smartphone shipments worldwide cost less than $200 off contract, making them very attractive compared to other devices.” Compare that to Apple (which dropped in marketshare while Android grew) with only 15.4% of its shipments in the $200-$400 mid-range category. The remainder of Android’s sales include 21.5% in the mid-range $200-$400 category and 19.82% in the high-end $400+ category:

IDC previously released its data for worldwide smartphone shipments for Q2 by OEM with Apple coming in with 11.9% of the market behind Samsung at 25.2%.