ABI Research notes only iOS and Windows Phone grew in Q4 2014

ABI Research have posted their own estimates for Q4 2014, and as we can see from the numbers above, while iOS and Windows Phone both grew sequentially, Android and other operating systems actually shrunk somewhat.

In what is traditionally a shipment spike quarter, certified Android shipments fell from 217 million in 3Q 2014 to 206 million in 4Q 2014, mainly due to Apple iOS’ 90% growth from 39.3 million to 74.5 million iPhones shipped, but also due to forked Android.

“Google’s Android is being attacked by Apple’s iOS at the high end and forked Android (AOSP) at the low end in high growth emerging markets. The Android One initiative has slowed forked Android growth, but Apple’s success has taken the high end of the market away from certified Android’s premium tier vendors,” said Nick Spencer, Senior Practice Director, Mobile Devices, ABI Research.

“4Q 2014 has been a seismic quarter in the smartphone industry and many premium tier Android vendors may once again review their operating system and therefore content and service strategies in light of Apple and forked Android vendor Xiaomi’s success. Worrying times for Google’s mobile services and Android, but it presents opportunity for other service providers and even operating systems,” added Spencer.

Do our readers think a unified and coherent ecosystem like Windows Phone will be able to take advantage of Android’s weakness?

Read ABI Research’s full report here.

Thanks JamesSB for the tip.