Google is shaping up to be the biggest worldwide player in the personal tech market based on market share.
That’s the gist of a new chart from Statista, based on projections from Gartner released this week, measuring total device shipments across mobile phones, computers, tablets and convertible PCs. Google’s dominance is hardly unexpected, considering the massive worldwide popularity of Android, its mobile operating system. It’s bad news for Microsoft, though, which suffers the most in Gartner’s projection. The Redmond-based tech titan has missed big in the mobile market, and Gartner predicts that it won’t be challenging Google any time soon.
Of course, there are a few major differences between the current state of the mobile market and Microsoft’s dominance of the PC market. First and foremost, Google isn’t making money directly from Android’s licensing. In addition to the open nature of Android, the company has said it doesn’t charge a licensing fee for Google Mobile Services, its bundle of apps and services like the Google Play Store and Gmail. Gartner’s projections also show Apple and Microsoft largely holding on to their current businesses, which have been plenty profitable for both companies.
What’s more, it’s also possible that some tectonic shift in the mobile market could come from out of left field and shake up the current competitive landscape. For the moment, it looks like Google and Apple are the only two players in the mobile device space, but it’s possible that some new technology could change things around.
