Android Growth Smashes the Competition

There’s absolutely no doubt that smartphones are on the rise. Gartner puts this figure at 1.6 billion units sold in 2010; that’s up on 2009 by 31.8%.

Smartphone Market Share Q1 2011

The clear winner has been Google’s Android platform, while Apple has also seen moderate growth. The other noteworthy players: RIM, Microsoft and Symbian have all seen significant levels of loss, with Symbian being the clear loser.

Nokia has moved the largest number of smartphone devices in the year, but its overall growth in this sector of 36.1% pales in comparison to their closest competitor Samsung. In the same period Samsung saw an increase in smartphone sales of 439.9%. HTC saw the second largest gains of 258.3%.

No doubt Nokia has seen the writing on the wall, and made the smart move (pun intended) to change OS. That said, it’s poured all of its hope into the proverbial leaking Microsoft bucket. Windows Mobile 7, has yet to prove itself in this segment and initial critical reviews may find Nokia gasping for air soon. Time will tell.