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    Friday, April 19, 2024

    Android extends its dominance in smartphones

    New York (AP) - Research firm IDC says Google's Android operating system has extended its dominance in the smartphone market largely because of the success of Samsung's line of phones that run the software.

    IDC says Samsung Electronics Co. and other phone makers shipped nearly 105 million Android smartphones in the second quarter. Android had 68 percent of the worldwide market, up from 47 percent a year earlier.

    The gains come largely at the expense of BlackBerry phones made by Research in Motion Ltd. and Symbian phones used mostly by Nokia Corp. Each saw its market share drop below 5 percent.

    The market share for Apple Inc.'s

    iPhone fell slightly to 17 percent, but the company shipped more units than a year ago. Apple is the No. 2 smartphone maker, behind Samsung.

    Here are IDC's figures for worldwide smartphone unit sales and market share in the second quarter of 2012, by operating system.

    • Android (Google Inc.): 104.8 million units, 68.1 percent share (46.9 percent a year earlier)

    • iOS (Apple Inc.'s iPhone): 26.0 million units, 16.9 percent share (18.8 percent a year earlier)

    • BlackBerry (Research in Motion Ltd.): 7.4 million units, 4.8 percent share (11.5 percent a year earlier)

    • Symbian (mostly used by Nokia Corp.): 6.8 million units, 4.4 percent share (16.9 percent a year earlier)

    • Windows (Microsoft Corp.): 5.4 million units, 3.5 percent share (2.3 percent a year earlier)

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