Android- and iOS-Powered Smartphones Expand Their Share of the Market in the First Quarter, According to IDC
Smartphones powered by the Android and iOS mobile operating systems accounted for more than eight out of ten smartphones shipped in the first quarter of 2012 (1Q12).
Context & Ripple Effects
The smartphone boom IDC flagged a year ago — worldwide mobile phone volumes up 20% in Q1 2011 on handset upgrades — has resolved into a two-platform race. In Q1 2012, IDC counts Android and iOS devices as more than eight of every ten smartphones shipped, up from an already dominant position.
The pickup travelled unusually wide for a quarterly tracker note, picked up by The Verge, Computerworld, eWeek and Marketing Land among others, because it lands amid mixed signals: ComScore put Android at 51% of the U.S. installed base in early May, yet had already flagged uncharacteristic slowing of Android's U.S. growth at the end of 2011.
First-order effects
- Apple and Google's OEM partners now control the overwhelming majority of global unit flow, shrinking the addressable market every other platform vendor competes for with each quarterly report.
- Scale is exposing maintenance strain inside the winning ecosystem itself: a rumored dispute reported earlier in May has AT&T and Google blaming each other over Android handsets failing to receive software updates.
Second-order effects
- Because Android's U.S. installed-base growth was slowing even as global share expands, the marginal shipment is landing overseas — pressuring regional competitors and carriers in markets outside the U.S. rather than at Verizon or AT&T storefronts.
- Developers and advertisers rationally concentrate effort on two app stores; the flood of Android model launches through early 2012 means differentiation shifts from hardware specs toward software experience, where the update backlog becomes a visible liability.
Third-order effects
- If the concentration pattern holds, the smartphone market structurally resembles a licensed-duopoly supply chain: Google controls distribution via free licensing while Apple controls it vertically, and any third platform must buy relevance rather than earn it organically.
- Carrier bargaining power erodes further as handset choice narrows — AT&T's public spat with Google over updates previews the accountability questions carriers face when the OS layer sits with two companies they do not control.
The trend: Global smartphone operating systems are consolidating into a de facto Android–iOS duopoly, with each quarterly shipment tracker widening the gap over the remaining platforms.