In one of its newer studies, ABI Research is looking at the smartphone market and the various platform shares. Android is leading the pack, accounting for 57% of all smartphones, while iOS is second with 21% of the market. When it comes to tablets, the situation is opposite, with Apple’s iPads dominating the market and accounting for 62% of the market, while Android has a 28% share.
There is, however, room for other platforms, namely Windows Phone and BlackBerry 10. According to ABI’s senior analyst Aapo Markkanen, 2013 should be seen as relative success for both Microsoft and BlackBerry. “For the end of the year, we expect there to be 45 million Windows Phone handsets in use, with BlackBerry 10 holding an installed base of close to 20 million. Microsoft will also have 5.5 million Windows-powered tablets to show for it,” he added.
The figures mentioned above refer to actively used devices, which is what app developers should generally treat as an addressable market for their releases. And in that sense, the installed bases of this scale would be large enough to keep these two in the game.
As you’ve probably already heard, BlackBerry 10 was launched with 70,000 apps, making sure Z10 and Q10 users have a choice of apps right from the get-go…
Additional information, in case you need it, is available from ABI’s Mobile Application Technologies Research Service.