Android held majority share of sales in almost all developed markets in 2013.
According to data from Kantar Worldpanel ComTech for the period between October to December 2013, Android emerged as the top OS across Europe with 68.6 percent share, while Apple held second place with 18.5 percent share. Windows Phone market share remained flat at 10.3 percent for the final quarter of 2013.
"Windows Phone has now held double digit share across Europe for three consecutive months. Unfortunately for Nokia the European smartphone market is only growing at 3 percent year on year so success in this market has not been enough to turn around its fortunes - reflected in its recent disappointing results. Its performance also deteriorated toward the end of 2013 in the important growth markets of China, USA and Latin America," said Dominic Sunnebo, strategic insight director at Kantar.
Android finished 2013 with strong year-on-year share growth across 12 major global markets including Europe (the UK, Germany, France, Italy and Spain), the U.S., Latin America, China and Japan. Even though Apple lost its overall market share, it held on strong in key markets, including the U.S., the UK and China.
Kantar also revealed that Android smartphone sales accounted for 50.6 percent between October and December 2013 in the U.S. iOS had 43.9 percent market share in the country, while Windows Phone took the third place with just 4.3 percent of the market share.
The report also suggests that Samsung enjoyed accelerated growth previously, but the South Korean company is now coming under pressure in most regions. Samsung's share reduced to 40.3 percent in Europe, a decline by 2.2 percent, and its market share ended up flat at 23.7 percent for 2013 in China.
Sunnebo noted that many smartphone makers are concentrating on China, but local brands are proving to be winners in the Asian country. In December 2013, Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi, which started in 2010, overtook both Apple and Samsung to become the top selling smartphone in the country.
He said the combination of high specification devices, low prices, and "an ability to create unprecedented buzz through online and social platforms has proved an irresistible proposition for the Chinese."
The Kantar report also suggests that the smartphone percentage penetration in the UK was 69 percent in December 2013, with 85 percent of handsets sold from October to December 2013 being smartphones. About 34 percent of smartphones bought in December 2013 were gifts, which has increased from 30 percent when compared to 2012. Samsung was the top gifted smartphone manufacturer with 30.7 percent, followed by Apple at 28.4 percent and then Nokia at 17.6 percent.
