Kantar: Android global growth continues, WP rises in Europe

Market analyst company Kantar Worldpanel has posted its report on the smartphone market for the three months ending in April today. The data shows Android as the big winner, the Google OS being the biggest gainer in Europe, China and the US, whereas Windows Phone and iOS had mixed performance across the surveyed markets.

In the top 5 European markets - Germany, France, Italy, Spain and Great Britain, Android rose 1.7 points to control 72.4% of the smartphones. Windows Phone also did well, climbing 1.6 points to 8.4% market share. Apple iOS's positions improved very slightly to 17.5%.

The growth came at the expense of BlackBerry, which dropped 1.7 points and the other platforms which lost 1.8 points. The total share of the platforms outside of the big trio is now 1.7% in Europe.

Android did very well in the US, climbing 7.3 points and reaching 59.1% market penetration. iOS faltered in its home market losing 6.8 points, and Microsoft's WP also slid 0.9 points to just 4.7%. Interestingly enough BlackBerry slightly improved its share to reach 1% of the market - the highest for the platform across all markets included in the report.

In China, BlackBerry completely disappeared from the smartphone map, while Android achieved both its biggest growth and its highest market share. The Google OS climbed 7.9 points to a total of 79.8%. Microsoft's struggles in the world's largest smartphone market are pretty evident - Windows Phone dropped to 1.4% of the market.

The final two countries in the report show a very different picture though. In Japan iOS is in the lead, climbing 5.6 points to a total share of 55.4%. Windows Phone also improved there, but it still only powers one in a hundred smartphones. BlackBerry lost it all in the country of the rising sun, while Android slid 0.8 points to 43.6%.

Finally, in Australia iOS gained 2 points to close the gap to Android, which slid 3.3 points. The Google platform still reigns supreme in Oz, though with its 60.8% market share. Windows Phone scored some progress capturing 6.7% of the market.

That's some very interesting data indeed and we should be seeing more of the same in the next few months. With the current crop of Android flagships now marching strong across the globe and Microsoft delivering its first WP 8.1 smartphones, the two platforms should put quite a lot of pressure on iOS, which is unlikely to get new hardware until September. The question then remains - how good of a fightback attempt will the iPhone 6 be.

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