Believe it or not, Android smartphones are still continuing to gobble up more market share. According to IDC, Android smartphones accounted for a ridiculous 81% of all phones shipped in Q3 (a good chunk of that was likely Samsung, too). All in all, Android shipments grew 51.3% year-over-year, and the smartphone market overall grew about 40% year-over-year. IDC also notes that of the 211.6 million phones shipped, roughly 21% of them were phablets, or any device over 5.7 inches in screen size. That's up from 3% a year ago, which I think is partly because of the popularity of larger devices and partly because most manufacturers are at least offering gigantic devices now, where it was mainly just Samsung with their Note II a year ago.
Windows Phone also saw an incredible growth, improving shipments 156% year over year. Unfortunately, Windows Phones accounted for 9.5 million devices, which is an incredibly small number compared to Android's 211 million, but hey, progress is progress. Either way, the smartphone market shows no signs of slowing down, and I think we can expect even bigger numbers after the holidays this year.
source: IDC
