Android handsets expected to have 81.2% of the global market by year's end

The other day, we told you that researcher IDC estimates that global smartphone growth will slow to 9.8% this year, with 1.43 billion units shipped in 2016. When we passed this information to you, we discussed how certain countries like China are seeing a slowdown in first time smartphone purchases thanks to saturation of the product in the country.

Today, we have some further forecasts from IDC, which includes estimates of how the major operating systems will do this year. The guys at IDC whipped out their trusty abacuses and figured out that when the final seconds of 2015 are over, there will have been 1.16 billion Android handsets shipped over the year for a 9.5% increase from 2014's figure. That will give Google's open source OS a whopping 81.2% of the global smartphone market.

Apple will ship 226 million iPhones this year, according to iOS. That gives the company a 15.8% slice of the smartphone pie. More importantly, it represents growth of 17.3% over last year. The big question is whether Apple can keep up this momentum with a newly designed Apple iPhone 7.

IDC estimates that 31.3 million Windows Phone units will be delivered in 2015. That will give Microsoft's mobile OS a 2.2% global market share. On a year-over-year basis, the number of shipped Windows Phone handsets will decline 10.2%.

The research firm also decided to look ahead to 2019, and estimates that in four years, 1.54 billion Android phones will be delivered. That will account for 82.6% of the global smartphone market. Year-over-year growth will drop in half from this year's figure, to 4.8%. Android will enjoy a compounded annual growth rate of 7.7% from 2015 to 2019.

IDC expects Apple's compounded annual growth rate to be 6.5% over the same time period. That will result in 263.4 million iPhones shipped in 2019, good enough for a 14.1% market share. That will give Apple a 3.1% year-over-year growth rate in 2019.

With 43.6 million units expected to be shipped in 2019, Windows Phone will have 2.3% of the market in 2019, estimates IDC. But there is still hope for fans of Microsoft's mobile OS. While the platform's five-year compounded growth rate will be 4.5%, Windows Phone will have a higher year-over-year growth rate in 2019 than iOS or Android, at 11.4%.

For 2019, IDC predicts that 1.86 billion smartphones will be shipped. Smartphone deliveries will grow at a compounded annual rate of 7.4% from 2015-2019. Keep in mind that anything can happen between now and 2019 that can throw off these estimates. A stunning new feature, or even a brand new operating system could make these numbers look ridiculous in four years.

source: IDC via MobileSyrup