Android continues market share grab

The news will be welcomed by Google as it prepares to fight Oracle over Java patent infringement claims

Android devices are likely to see the biggest gains in the smartphone market this year, according to a new report from Digitimes Research.

Smartphone shipments will increase to 280 million in 2010, an impressive 57 per cent gain on last year.

Android handsets will see the biggest growth, thanks in part to hardware manufacturer adoption. Overall, smartphones will take up around a fifth of the entire handset market.

Luke Lin, an analyst at Digitimes Research, said that backing from Samsung and LG will help cement Android's position through support, marketing activities and development.

Android had just five per cent of the market in 2009, and just under 14 per cent in the first six months of 2010.

Digitimes puts the operating system's growth at 561 per cent year on year, at a cost to other providers.

Symbian has seen its market share contract, and could slip by over a third this year. However, Symbian will continue to lead the operating system installed base and still beats Android into first place.

Apple's iOS is in third place with a 15.6 per cent share, and RIM's BlackBerry OS is in fourth with 15 per cent. However, Digitimes expects these two to switch positions over the year, as BlackBerry makes a gain of just under two per cent.

Microsoft will sit in fifth place, and has had a "difficult time" maintaining a market share over five per cent. This may change with the release of Windows Phone 7, according to Digitimes.

The news comes just a week after Gartner reported a giant leap in Android's market share from 1.8 per cent in the second quarter of 2009 to 17.2 per cent in Q2 2010, leap-frogging Apple into third place.