Android reigns supreme in smartphone market with 79.3% share

After the launch of the original iPhone, Apple managed to gain a dominant position in the smartphone market, but those days are now far behind us. Apple is unable to maintain its marketshare in the fast-growing marketshare, while Google's Android platform continues to post impressive gains.

According to market research firm IDC, shipments of smartphones hit 236.4 million units in Q2 2013, up 51.3 percent versus the 156.2 million units sold in Q2 2012. A total of 187.4 million Android phones were sold last quarter, giving Android a marketshare of 79.3 percent, versus 69.1 percent in the year before period.

Apple's iPhone lineup saw shipments increase from 26 million to 31.2 million, which was not enough to maintain its marketshare in this rapidly growing market. Apple's iOS marketshar fell from 16.6 percent to 13.2 percent year-over-year, while Microsoft's Windows Phone saw its marketshare rise from 3.1 percent to 3.7 percent.

RIM's situation is looking pretty dire, shipments of BlackBerry OS phones fell from 7.7 million units to 6.8 million units, representing a drop in marketshare from 4.9 percent to 2.9 percent. Another 0.8 percent of the market shipped with a Linux-based distro, down from 1.8 percent the year before, while phones with the now defunct Symbian OS are drawing their last breath with a marketshare of 0.2 percent.