Apple and Google mobile grew in 2011, all others shrank

Every month, the NPD analyzes the mobile market and tracks the performance of smartphone platforms and manufacturers. Now that the year is almost over, the metrics company released a comprehensive report that summarizes January to October 2011. Not surprising, the results show that Android is in the lead, iOS is in second, and the rest are fighting for what's left over.

Android and iOS combine to secure a whopping 82 percent of the smartphone market. Apple has 29 percent of the market, while Android has the lion's share with 53 percent. These two platforms were the only ones to record growth in 2011. RIM's BlackBerry OS, which has struggled this year, declined to a meager 8 percent of the market share. Newcomer Windows Phone 7 didn't plummet like RIM, but it didn't climb either. Throughout 2011, the platform never went above 2 percent.

These trends for Android and iOS will likely continue into 2012. Android is available from different manufacturers and will continue to flood the market with handsets. Apple sells, at most, three models and will continue to trail Android. It's a volume number, and Apple's three models can't keep pace with Android's 100+ models. The other platforms, Windows Phone 7 and BlackBerry, may change depending on the success of their 2012 handset and tablet lineups. Nokia will introduce its Lumia line of Window Phone handsets in the US, and RIM is prepping phones with the QNX-based BlackBerry 10 OS.

[Via Electronista]