Andre Yoskowitz
31 Jan 2011 18:17
According to the market research company Canalys, shipments of Android smartphones reached 32.9 million in the Q4 2010, making it the best-selling smartphone operating system in the world.
Symbian, long on top of the list, fell to second, at 31 million shipments.
In terms of market share, Android grew 615 percent from 2009 to take 32.5 percent, while Symbian fell from 44.4 percent to 30.6 percent in the same period.
Phone makers HTC and Samsung had notably strong years, accounting for 45 percent of the Android phone shipments.
Apple's iOS fell to third, at 16 percent, remaining practically flat year-over-year. Shipments increased 86 percent, however, to 16.2 million iPhones.
RIM's BlackBerry share dropped from 20 percent to 14.4, despite seeing a reasonably strong 35 percent growth in shipments.
Windows-based phones rounded out the top 5, although market share fell from 7.3 percent to just 3.1 percent. Windows Phone 7 sales were "steady," says the firm.