Demand for Apple's large-screen iPhone 6 and 6 Plus put a major dent on Android shipments last quarter.

While Android is still the king of the smartphone market — by far — shipments of phones running Google's mobile OS fell during the crucial holiday quarter for the first time ever, mainly due to phenomenal growth of Apple's iOS, according to new data from market tracker ABI Research.

In what is usually a "shipment spike quarter," Android shipments actually fell 5 percent, dropping to 205.56 million units in Q4 from 217 million during the previous three months. Shipments of so-called "forked" or modified Android phones also dropped, falling 1 percent to 85 million units.

Apple, on the other hand, saw huge shipment growth. The Cupertino tech giant shipped 74.5 million iPhones, an impressive 90 percent increase from the previous quarter, ABI said.

"Google's Android is being attacked by Apple's iOS at the high end," Nick Spencer, senior practice director of mobile devices for ABI Research, said in a statement. On the low end, Android shipments took a hit thanks to cheaper "forked" devices from companies like Xioami, especially in "high-growth markets" like China.

Meanwhile, shipments of Windows Phone-based devices rose 19 percent to 10.70 million units. In total, smartphone shipments increased by 7 percent compared to the previous quarter, with manufacturers collectively shipping 378 million units.

"4Q 2014 has been a seismic quarter in the smartphone industry and many premium tier Android vendors may once again review their operating system and therefore content and service strategies in light of Apple and forked Android vendor Xiaomi's success," Spencer predicted. "Worrying times for Google's mobile services and Android, but it presents opportunity for other service providers and even operating systems."

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