Top Four Smartphone Operating Systems in 2014: critical trends and Market Share.

The market holds its promises: Android and iOS continue and will continue to aggressively dominate the worldwide market.   

According to data from the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, Android and iOS accounted for 96.3% of all smartphone shipments, up slightly from 95.6% in 4Q13 and from 93.8% in CY13. 

In terms of year-over-year shipment growth, Android outpaced the overall smartphone market for CY14 (32.0% vs 27.7%, respectively) while iOS beat the market in 4Q14 (46.1% vs 29.2%, respectively). 

It is clear that the combination of strong end-user demand, refreshed product portfolios, and the availability of low-cost devices (particularly for Android) drove volumes higher. 

Among the critical trends, Connectikpeople.co notes that, Apple has entered the phablet market; Android relies more heavily on smaller vendors to drive volumes higher. 

Microsoft is bringing ever-cheaper Lumia into play and Tizen (from Samsung) finally getting launched to India early this year. 

Samsung retained the leadership position by a wide margin, shipping more volume than the next five vendors combined. 

iOS saw its market share for 2014 decline slightly even as volumes reached a new record and grew at nearly the same pace as the overall smartphone market.

Microsoft relied primarily on a long list of entry-level Lumia devices to maintain its position in the market, and relied on its partners HTC and Samsung to provide cover on the high-end of the market. 

BlackBerry fails -69.8% from 2013 levels. CEO John Chen anticipates 10 million units will be shipped in 2015, returning the company to profitability and marking a 72% increase over the 5.8 million units shipped in 2014.