Android smartphone share more than triples iOS in Q3

From CNET News.com: If there was ever a period of time that showed Android's dominance over the smartphone space, it was last quarter.

During the three-month period ended September 30, 60.5 million Android-based smartphones shipped worldwide, helping the mobile operating system secure 52.5 percent of the space, research firm Gartner revealed today. In just one year, Android has more than doubled its market share, which during the third quarter of 2010, stood at 25.3 percent. Furthermore, smartphone shipments just about tripled this year from the 20.5 million that hit store shelves last year.

All that success was detrimental to Apple, Gartner found. Whereas last year, Apple secured 16.6 percent of the smartphone market in the third quarter with 13.5 million shipments, the company's iOS platform was only able to muster 15 percent market share last quarter on 17.3 million iPhones sold. That put Apple's mobile operating system behind Symbian, which secured 16.9 percent of the space during the quarter.

"Android benefited from more mass-market offerings, a weaker competitive environment and the lack of exciting new products on alternative operating systems such as Windows Phone 7 and RIM," Gartner principal research analyst Robert Cozza said in a statement. "Apple's iOS market share suffered from delayed purchases as consumers waited for the new iPhone."

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