Android is now the number one operating system for smartphones and dislodges Symbian from the number one position it has held for 10 years.
According to research company Canalys, Android sold 32.9 million devices during Q4 2010, overtaking Symbian, which sold 31 million.
This represents a 615% year on year sales increase for Android, and gives it a market share of 32.9% compared to Symbian’s rise of 30% and market share fall from 44.4% to 30.6%.
“As we look forward, we’re going to see a lot of growth coming from Android,” said Canalys principal analyst Pete Cunningham. “Its launch timing was really opportune, because vendors were looking for a platform to compete with the iPhone and neither Symbian nor Windows Mobile offered that. Plus it’s very scalable – you can develop high-end or sub-hundred dollar products.”
This growth is the result of manufactures such as Motorola, Samsung and HTC all opting to use Google’s open source platform in their bids to launch rival Smartphones to Apple’s iPhone.
Android is also gaining in the tablet market with a recent report from Strategy Analytics showing that while Apple had accounted for 77% of global Tablet shipments during Q4 2010, Android tablet devices represented 22% of global shipments. The Apple share was down from 96% in the previous quarter, with Android taking up almost all of the growth.
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