Android snaps up 52% of mobile phone market

Google has reason to celebrate this week, with a recent study showing that Android, its mobile phone operation system, has now take 52 per cent of the smartphone market.

This percentage is even more impressive when you consider that Android only had 25.3 per cent market share in Q3 2010.

According to Gartner this means that when it comes to worldwide sales, Android trounced the opposition with over 60 million smartphones sold.

Its nearest rival was Symbian, which took 16.9 per cent of the market – a drop of 20 per cent when you compare the OS to how it was doing at the same time last year.

When it comes to iOS, it also saw a drop in its share of the market, albeit a small one. Over 17 million iOS handsets were sold which equates to a 15 per cent market share, down from 16.6 per cent a year ago.

Apple shouldn't be too worried about this drop, however, as it is said to have happened because consumers were waiting for the iPhone 4S to arrive before making a purchase decision.

RIM should start worrying though, as it lost over 4 per cent of its share and is now down to just 11 per cent, the reason that is cited is that the company has fallen out of favour with the US market.

Suffering from delay

Roberta Cozza, principal research analyst at Gartner, said about the results: "Apple's iOS market share suffered from delayed purchases as consumers waited for the new iPhone.

"Continued pressure is impacting RIM's performance, and its smartphone share reached its lowest point so far in the US market, where it dropped to 10 per cent."

Next year's results should be even more interesting as we will see how much of an impact Microsoft's Windows Phone OS will have on market share.

This week sees the launch of the Nokia Lumia 800, the flagship phone for the OS so far, and this is a long line of releases that will make use of Microsoft's refreshed and well-received mobile operating system.

Via Econsultancy