Google’s Android operating system, which overtook Symbian to become the number one smartphone platform in December quarter, increased its lead over others in the March quarter, London-based Canalys Research said.
India, along with China and South Korea were the best performing markets in terms of growth for smartphones, registering 100% or higher growth.
Android, which had a 32.9% share of the global smartphone market at the end of December, increased it to 35% during the March quarter, Canalys said.
Marketshares of other smartphone platforms were not revealed, but Symbian had been second with a market share of 30.6% in December quarter.
Samsung’s new bada operating system shipped 3.5 million phones, higher than Microsoft’s Windows Phone shipments by more than a million units.
In the US, Android led with a 49% share, followed by Apple with a 31% share. Apple numbers were up 150% during the quarter, while number two smartphone vendor HTC grew even faster at 200%.
On a global scale, Nokia continued to be the biggest smartphone maker, with a marketshare of 24%, down from 39% a year ago.
Apple continued to make market share gains, reaching 19%. RIM’s share, however, dropped in Q1, as its portfolio awaited a refresh and the vendor focused on the PlayBook launch. Overtaking Motorola, LG moved into sixth place, with its Optimus series of Android smart phones doing well in all regions.
Overall, worldwide smart phone shipments grew 83% to 101.0 million units.