Android rises to record 88 percent Q3 smartphone sales share, as Windows ‘all but disappears’

It's funny how three separate market research firms have released different global Q3 smartphone shipment estimates in the past week or so, also choosing to focus their analysis on distinct aspects of the current and future state of the mobile ecosystem.

While GfK believes industry demand totaled 353 million units between July and September, anticipating a prospective historic decline next year, and IDC counted nearly 363 mil smartphones shipped worldwide, of which Samsung retained the lion's share, Strategy Analytics now tops both approximations, going all the way up to 375M.

That would mark a cool 6 percent annual growth, the fastest such rate in 12 months, and it's mostly thanks to strong performances from Android device vendors across Asia and Africa Middle East, "particularly India and South Africa."

But you have to figure the world-leading mobile OS did adequate business, at the very least, elsewhere too, since it commanded a record-high 88 percent of the grand smartphone sales total around the globe. That's more than 3 percentage points up from Q3 2015, while iOS lost a point and a half and 3.5 millions of units, with BlackBerry and Windows Phone all but dead "due to strategic shifts", and Tizen and "other emerging platforms softened as a result of limited product portfolios and modest developer support."

Combined, every other platform besides Android and iOS barely added up to 1.3 million unit sales and 0.3 percent share during Q3 2016, which is officially too insignificant to be taken seriously.

Source: Android rises to record 88 percent Q3 smartphone sales share, as Windows 'all but disappears'