More than 87% of all smartphones sold in the second quarter of 2017 shipped with Google’s Android operating system, with Apple’s iOS — the operating system used on iPhones — the only other platform to feature, with 12.1% market share.

According to new data from research and analyst firm Gartner, 321.2m Android smartphones were sold in the second quarter, giving the Google software a market share of 87.7%, up from 86.2% in the same quarter in 2016.

Apple sold 44.4m iPhones in the quarter, with its market share slipping from 12.9% a year ago to 12.1%.

The smartphone market has become a two-horse race between Apple and Google, with other operating systems making up just 0.2% of the total market in the second quarter, down from 0.9% a year ago.

Global sales of smartphones to end users totalled 366.2m units in the second quarter, a 6.7% increase over the second quarter of 2016, according to Gartner.

“Although demand for utility smartphones remains strong, there is growing demand in emerging markets for 4G smartphones, with more storage, better processors and more advanced cameras. This is translating into higher demand for mid-priced (US$150-$200) smartphones,” said Anshul Gupta, research director at Gartner, in a statement.

Sales of all types of smartphone grew in the second quarter of 2017, compared with the same quarter a year ago. However, there is a concern about rising component costs, as well as limited supply, due to the reduced availability of critical components.

“We expect a shortage of flash memory and organic light-emitting diode displays will affect premium smartphone supply in the second half of 2017,” said Gupta.

Samsung’s smartphone sales grew by 7.5%, year over year, after three consecutive quarterly declines. The company had been hit hard by problems with the Galaxy Note7, but the Galaxy S8 and S8+ are bringing back high demand for Samsung smartphones. — (c) 2017 NewsCentral Media