600 per cent jump puts Android ahead of iPhone

APPLE fans scoffed when people dubbed it an "iPhone killer". Now Android has lived up to the hype.

Figures from Gartner's new report on third-quarter smartphone sales. For more information see here . Graph: news.com.au

APPLE fans scoffed when the press said it was an "iPhone killer".

Now Google's smartphone operating system Android looks to have lived up to the hype.

Research firm Gartner reported today that Android's share of the smartphone market grew by more than 600 per cent in the past year.

In the third quarter of last year, Android accounted for just 3.5 per cent of the market.

This year it's got 25.5 per cent.

That puts it ahead of Apple, Microsoft and the makers of the BlackBerry.

And to add insult to injury, those three all saw their market shares slide rather than grow over the past 12 months.

Gartner said Android's takeover was especially prominent in North America, the heartland of Apple fandom.

The firm said that in the third quarter of 2010, more than 20 million handsets running Android were sold worldwide.

In the same time, Apple sold about 13 and half million iPhones and Research in Motion sold almost 12 million BlackBerrys.

Gartner said Android's popularity was partly due to its availability on different phones in different price ranges.

But it also said that Google had helped by making sure it innovated quickly.

"Google is maintaining a fast pace of OS updates," said the report.

"Each version brings new features and polish to Android, and the level of innovation is a major differentiator."

The world's biggest phone maker Nokia remained in the top spot for market share of both mobile phones and smartphones.

Gartner said worldwide mobile phone sales totalled 417 million units in the third quarter, up 35 per cent from a year ago.

Smartphone sales grew 96 per cent to 81 million units and accounted for 19.3 per cent of overall mobile phone sales in the quarter.