Android smartphone sales soar in the UK

Android smartphones are proving a popular choice with UK mobile phone users

Google's Android is becoming an increasingly popular choice for smartphone users in the UK, according to new figures from research firm GFK Retail and Technology.

The percentage of Android contract sales increased from three per cent to over 12 per cent from mid-March to mid-April. One in five UK smartphones sold are Android phones.

Android market share increased from under two per cent to nearly seven per cent of the total mobile phone market in the UK during the same four-week period.

Meanwhile, research from Strategy Analytics said that the global smartphone market had grown 50 per cent more during the first quarter of this year than it did during the same period of 2009.

Strategy Analytics said that smartphones currently make up 18 per cent of total mobile phone sales worldwide, and that nearly 54 million smartphones were sold from January to March this year.

Nokia remained the market leader, shipping over 21 million smartphones in the quarter, followed by Research in Motion, which sold nearly 11 million BlackBerrys, and Apple, which sold nearly nine million iPhones.

In related news, a BBC report said that the battery life of smartphones could be increased by up to 20 per cent if manufacturers start producing phones that use phase change memory modules.

Samsung is planning to use such memory material in smartphones produced later this year.