Stefan Mileschin

Although you would not know it, Apple is fast sliding towards a state where it will have the same market share of smartphones market that it has for PCs.

While it's mostly reported that Apple as being the top smartphone manufacturer that does not really shine any light on how enormour or competitive the market really is.

According to IDC, Apple makes just 13.2 percent of the smartphones on the market - and that number is falling. Last quarter it was 16.6 percent. Samsung has a larger market share than Apple, and the rest of the market is largely carved up by othere Android devices.

Google's Android OS has increased its global market share to 79.3 percent in the second quarter from 69.1 percent at the sime time last year.

BlackBerry dropped to 2.9 percent from 4.9 percent in 2012. It has fallen behind Microsoft, which is now at number four in OS share.

IDC said that the main reason Apple has doing so well is that that its phones are so much more expensive than Android gear, so there's a higher profit margin. Excluding subsisidies from phone companies, the average iPhone cost $710 in 2012 - roughly $300 more than the average smartphone.

But that higher price tag is also denting mass sales. IDC estimated that Apple's second-quarter profit was $5.99 billion with an operating margin of 33 percent, compared to Samsung's profit of $5.63 billion profit with a 19 percent operating margin.

http://news.techeye.net/mobile/apple...e-market-share