While Microsoft continued to push Windows Phone in the third quarter to no avail, Apple’s new iPhones trounced everyone.
According to new numbers from Gartner, Windows Phone’s share of the global smarpthone market was just 3 percent in the third quarter of 2014, down from 3.6 percent in the same quarter last year.
Android and iOS both ticked up slightly. Gartner found that Android controlled 83 percent of the market in the third quarter, while Apple’s operating system hung onto just under 13 percent of global sales.
By vendor, Apple was the big winner in the most recent quarter.
“Samsung and Nokia experienced sharp double-digit declines in the third quarter, which let Apple get closer to Nokia, with only 5 million units separating these two vendors,” said Roberta Cozza, research director at Gartner. “The gap is also narrowing between the third and fourth positions, and the fourth quarter could be decisive for Huawei and LG.”
Gartner expects record sales of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus over the holidays, but also notes that the Chinese vendors could see an uptick in sales.
“Chinese players will continue to look at expanding in overseas emerging markets,” said Annette Zimmermann, research director at Gartner. “In Europe prepaid country markets and attractive lost-cost LTE phones will also offer key opportunities for these brands.”
Overall, Gartner reported that worldwide mobile phone sales to end users totaled 455.8 million units in the third quarter of 2014 and were flat compared to the same period in 2013. That said, sales of smarpthones to end users grew 20.3 percent to reach 301 million units.
