The Smartphone Platform War Is Over

by Felix Richter, Statista.com

While the global smartphone market is as competitive as ever in terms of manufacturers fighting for the consumers' love (and money), the long-raging platform war appears to be over.

According to a recent report by Gartner, Android and iOS now account for 99 percent of global smartphone sales, rendering every other platform irrelevant.

As the chart below illustrates that hasn't always been the case. Back in 2010, Android and iOS devices accounted for less than 40 percent of global smartphone sales. Back then, devices running Nokia's Symbian and BlackBerry accounted for a significant portion of smartphone sales and Microsoft's market share stood at 4.2 percent.

While Symbian is long extinct and BlackBerry has started transitioning to Android devices, Microsoft has not yet given up on Windows 10 Mobile as a platform aimed at professional users. Whether Windows, or any other platform for that matter, stands a chance against the dominance of Android and iOS at this point seems highly doubtful though.

This chart shows a forecast of smartphone operating system market share in 2015 and 2019.

You will find more statistics at Statista.