Google’s Android OS has finally overtaken Nokia’s Symbian OS as the world’s most popular smartphone platform in the fourth quarter, according to the research firm Canalys. 32.9m phones running various versions of Android were sold to retailers and mobile networks in the fourth quarter of 2010, compared with Symbian’s total sales of 31m in the quarter, the report said.
Google is also working on its next generation Android OS codenamed Honeycomb (OS 3.0) which will be seen in the upcoming Motorola Xoom super-tablet. Tablets are expected to be the fastest growing market segment in 2011 that is certain to eat into both the smartphone and the netbook or cheap notebook space.
Canalys also noted that Nokia managed to retain its lead as the single biggest smartphone vendor, with a 30.6% share of phones shipped. Nokia still has the advantage in feature phones which manage to include a number of useful features in small form-factors which are favoured in many countries around the world.
Here’s where things get interesting. Symbian is only available in Nokia handsets which are made out of feature phones and advanced smart phones, while Google’s Android OS can be found in devices from Samsung, LG, Sony Ericsson, HTC, Motorola, Acer, Sharp, Toshiba among others. Android’s open nature has been its strongest trait.
The fourth quarter also saw the worldwide smart phone market hit new highs, with shipments of 101.2 million units representing year-on-year growth of 89%. The final quarter took shipments for the year to fractionally below 300 million units, with an annual growth rate of 80% over 2009.
