The smartphone world is dominated by two platforms - Android and iOS. And it doesn't appear the two giants will be doing serious battle with anyone other than themselves for the foreseeable future - that's according to the latest research from advisory firm Gartner.
Google and Apple are the big winners in the smartphone ecosystem, Gartner declares. The combined share of iOS and Android in the smartphone operating system market doubled to nearly 62 percent in the second quarter of 2011, up from just over 31 percent in the corresponding period of 2010.
And while iOS and Android jointly capture a bigger chunk of the smartphone market, the smartphone market itself is growing at an even faster rate. Worldwide sales of mobile devices to end users totaled 428.7 million units in the second quarter of 2011, a 16.5 percent increase from the second quarter of 2010. Sales of smartphones, on the other hand, spiked 74 percent year-over-year and accounted for 25 percent of overall sales in the second quarter of 2011. That's up from 17 percent in the second quarter of 2010.
“Smartphone sales continued to rise at the expense of feature phones,” said Roberta Cozza, principal research analyst at Gartner. “Consumers in mature markets are choosing entry-level and midrange Android smartphones over feature phones, partly due to carriers’ and manufacturers’ promotions.” However, Cozza adds, replacement sales in Western Europe showed "signs of fatigue" as smartphone sales declined quarter-on-quarter.
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