Google’s Android OS has made giant strides in capturing market share
Smartphones are gaining market share in Russia, but still trail feature phone adoption by a significant margin, according to research from the International Data Corporation, based on quarterly data collected from vendors and retailers, as well as distribution information. Back in 2009, only 5% of mobile phone shipments in Russia were of smartphones, but by 2011 that percentage had more than quadrupled, to 21%.
Part of the fast adoption rate is due to consumers in Russia who are turning to smartphones not to supplant older, internet-enabled devices, but to serve as their primary means of accessing the web.
Nokia’s Symbian remained the dominant OS for smartphones in Russia in 2011, with a 48% share of shipments. But Android’s gain was significant, climbing from a fraction of a percent in 2009 to 32% in 2011. Those gains can be attributed to Android’s availability on a wide range of devices, many of which are substantially cheaper than Apple’s iPhone.
And Google’s lead keeps growing. Early this year, Android displaced Symbian as the OS with the most shipments, and did so in spectacular fashion. Shipments of Android phones climbed from 32% to 43% between 2011 and 2012. The percentage of shipments of Symbian devices dropped precipitously over the same period, from a dominant 48% to 23%. Shipments of devices with Windows Phone 7 installed also made a noticeable gain, climbing from 3% in 2011 to 14% in 2012, while shipments of iOS devices remained near flat.
eMarketer estimates that the number of mobile phone users in Russia will hit 102.2 million in 2012, and then climb to 110.9 million in 2016.
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