Android accounted for 81.9% of all smartphone shipments in the last quarter thanks to massive sales in China. China accounted for 41%, or half, of all Android sales in the last quarter. However, the majority of Chinese Android devices do not utilize the Play Store which means that Google will not profit nearly as much from its Chinese sales as it will for the remaining 41.9%.
Gartner’s third-quarter smartphone research report is out, and on the surface it paints a very flattering portrait for Google. Mirroring Strategy Analytics’ report at the end of last month, Gartner also estimates that Android has crossed the symbolic 80 percent mark, reaching 81.9 percent of smartphone shipments in the last quarter, a 9.3 percent rise from last year. In comparison, analysts believe sales of Apple smartphones dropped 2.2 percentage points over the year to hold 12.1 percent of the smartphone market. Microsoft continued to take small steps to boost its market share, with Nokia’s strong US sales helping Windows Phone grow to 3.6 percent of the market. Lenovo’s impressive run of smartphone sales helped it almost silently climb to number three, leapfrogging LG in the process.
