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IDC: Android continued to increase its lead in smartphone market in 2014

IDC just released its latest numbers on the top smartphones by operating system showing Android and iOS continue to collectively dominate the market with both experiencing growth during 2014. Together, iOS and Android grabbed 96.3% of all smartphone shipments, which IDC points out is up from 95.6% in 4Q13 and from 93.8% in calendar year 2013.

Android experienced the most growth last year with 81.5% of the market during the year marking an increase in both unit volume and market share from 2013. iOS, on the other hand, managed to also increase its unit shipments— 153.4m in 2013 vs 192.7m in 2014— but dropped slightly in overall market share.

iOS growth did manage to outpace Android in the last quarter of calendar 2014, however, with 19.7% market share vs 17.5% during the same quarter in 2013.

Android pushed past the one billion unit mark in 2014, a significant milestone by itself but also because total Android volumes in 2014 bested total smartphone volumes in 2013. Samsung retained the leadership position by a wide margin, shipping more volume than the next five vendors combined. At the same time, Samsung’s total volumes for the year remained essentially flat while Asian vendors including Huawei, Lenovo (including Motorola), LG Electronics, Xiaomi, and ZTE fueled the most growth for Google’s platform.

The number three platform, Windows Phone, for the most part remains steady in IDC’s numbers at around 3% market share. Number four, BlackBerry, experienced significant decline with a -69.8% year-over-year change during 2014.

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Avatar for Jordan Kahn Jordan Kahn

Jordan writes about all things Apple as Senior Editor of 9to5Mac, & contributes to 9to5Google, 9to5Toys, & Electrek.co. He also co-authors 9to5Mac’s weekly Logic Pros series and makes music as one half of Toronto-based Makamachine.