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IDC: Smartphone shipments pass 300 million mark, Android and iOS dominate

300 million smartphones in one quarter is astounding, especially when many are waiting for the next iPhone, Galaxy Note, Nexus, and Moto X.
Written by Matthew Miller, Contributing Writer
idc2014data
Image: IDC

IDC said in new data on Thursday the worldwide smartphone market has reached the 300 million shipments milestone in the second quarter of 2014.

Last year's second quarter, we saw 240.5 million shipments so this new figure represents a 25.3 percent increase. Android increased its share, which makes sense given that many flagships, such as the Samsung Galaxy S5, HTC One (M8), and LG G3, are now available.

Apple's iOS market share declined, which again is expected since consumers wait for the likely September announcement of the iPhone 6.

While Samsung still leads the Android market with 29.3 percent, emerging markets are seriously challenging this dominance. Samsung was at 40 percent two years ago, but Huawei, Lenovo, LG, ZTE, and others are now picking up customers.

Ramon Llamas, Research Manager with IDC's Mobile Phone team, said in prepared remarks:

"With many of its OEM partners focusing on the sub-$200 segments, Android has been reaping huge gains within emerging markets. During the second quarter, 58.6 percent of all Android smartphone shipments worldwide cost less than $200 off contract, making them very attractive compared to other devices. With the recent introduction of Android One, in which Google offers reference designs below $100 to Android OEMs, the proportion of sub-$200 volumes will climb even higher."

Windows Phone remains steady in third place, but actually went down nearly a percent in market share compared to 2013. We will see new devices from vendors like HTC later this year, but it is still going to take some time for Windows Phone to break the 5 percent level.

BlackBerry has fallen 78 percent over the last year while remaining in fourth place.

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