BlackBerry was still going strong, Symbian was present on millions of Nokia phones and Samsung was still experimenting with its own operating system, Bada.
For app developers and publishers alike, it wasn’t easy to decide which platforms to support and which ones to ignore.
Current market share
Nowadays, things are much easier as there are basically just two relevant smartphone platforms left.
As our chart illustrates, devices running Android and iOS accounted for more than 99% of global smartphone sales in 2016, according to market research firm Gartner.
All other platforms, including former market leaders BlackBerry and Microsoft’s Windows Phone, have been rendered all but irrelevant.