Android market share has risen significantly in Q2 2013, as it was the operating system of choice on a staggering 79.3% of all smartphones shipped during the period, according to IDC. The gains came at the expense of iOS, BlackBerry and Symbian, while Windows Phone was the only other OS to post a rise in share for the quarter.

IDC: Top smartphone operating systems, shipments, and market share, 2013 Q2 (units in millions)

Operating System 2Q13 Unit Shipments 2Q13 Market Share 2Q12 Unit Shipments 2Q12 Market Share Year-over-Year Change
Android 187.4 79.3% 108 69.1% 73.5%
iOS 31.2 13.2% 26 16.6% 20.0%
Windows Phone 8.7 3.7% 4.9 3.1% 77.6%
BlackBerry OS 6.8 2.9% 7.7 4.9% -11.7%
Linux 1.8 0.8% 2.8 1.8% -35.7%
Symbian 0.5 0.2% 6.5 4.2% -92.3%
Others N/A 0.0% 0.3 0.2% -100.0%
Total 236.4 100.0% 156.2 100.0% 51.3%

Year-over-year the smartphone market grew 51.3%, from 156 million shipments in Q2 2012 to over 236 million this year; 187 million of those were Android devices.

iOS took the second place with 31 million shipments and 13.2% of the market. This is down from the 16.6% share Apple had a year ago. The company actually shipped a few million more devices this past quarter, but it didn't grow as fast as Android or the rest of the smartphone market for that matter, thus losing market share.

Windows Phone appears firmly planted in third place with 8.7 million shipments and 3.7% of the market, to post the largest year-over-year change of 77.6%.

The worst performers for this period were BlackBerry, shipping fewer phones and losing market (2.9% down from 4.9%), and Symbian, which posted a whopping 92.3% drop year-over-year. Nokia's legacy OS was on just 500K of the shipped units for the period, down from 6.5 million.

IDC: Top Android smartphone vendors, shipments, and market share, 2013 Q2 (units in millions)

Vendor 2Q13 Unit Shipments 2Q13 Market Share 2Q12 Unit Shipments 2Q12 Market Share Year-over-Year Change
Samsung 73.3 39.1% 48 44.4% 52.7%
LG 12.1 6.5% 5.8 5.4% 108.6%
Lenovo 11.4 6.1% 4.9 4.5% 132.7%
Huawei 10.2 5.4% 6.5 6.0% 56.9%
ZTE 10.2 5.4% 6.4 5.9% 59.4%
Others 70.2 37.5% 36.4 33.7% 92.9%
Total 187.4 100.0% 108.0 100.0% 73.5%

The top Android vendor in Q2 2013 was, unsurprisingly, Samsung which according to IDC shipped more than twice the units of Apple (73.3 million versus 31.2 million). Other manufacturers in the top five might surprise you: LG, Lenovo, Huawei and ZTE, each with 10-12 million units shipped; it seems that a strong low- and mid-range portfolio is doing very well for these companies. Major OEMs such as HTC and Motorola are included in the "Other" group, which makes up the other 37.5% of the Android segment.

Also unsurprising was Nokia's dominance among Windows Phone vendors, holding 81.6% of the Windows Phone market for 7.1 million units shipped. Samsung, HTC and Huawei each shipped 1 million or fewer Windows Phones for the quarter. Nokia's continued focus on high-quality Windows Phones should continue to push the platform upwards, after capturing the third place while BlackBerry looks to slip further.