The share of Android operating system in official smartphone shipments to Russia now exceeds 70%, almost doubling in just one year, according to research presented by Hi-Tech Mail.Ru and IDC. Android´s closest rival, Linux, has a share about 7 times smaller.
The market research data confirms the results of a customer survey conducted during the first quarter of this year by Hi-Tech Mail.Ru. Just over 50% of respondents said that they prefer Android over other mobile operating systems. Another 25.3% voted for Windows Phone, 16.8% for iOS, and 7.4% for other options.
Smartphone shipments to Russia
Source: IDC for Hi Tech Mail.ru
In a country where Apple’s devices are positioned as elite products, the share of iOS in smartphone shipments in the first quarter of 2013 reached a mere 8.4%, Linux accounted for 10.2%, and Windows Phone for 8.3%. In one year Symbian plunged from 33.7% to just 1.9%. In total, 3.81 million smartphones were shipped to Russia in Q1’2013, showing 68.6% year-to-year growth.
The results of the current study reveal continuing trends already shown in a research conducted by IDC in the last quarter of 2012 where Android accounted for 69.3%, Linux for 12.3%, and Windows Phone for 7%.
The increase of shipments of Android smartphones to the Russian market has not gone unnoticed by the country’s leading Internet companies. In March, the search giant Yandex launched its own app store for this operating system, while, in May, Yandex and Mail.Ru Group almost simultaneously released music streaming-related mobile apps.
