Google Android reigns smartphone market:
For Google, the Garner report paints a similarly-favorable picture to the firm's recent report on the smartphone market. Gartner estimates that Android will run on 49% of the world's smartphones by 2012. Android, Inc.

Apple may have sold 70 million iPhones last year, but that didn't stop Google's Android operating system from becoming the world's top mobile OS of 2010.

A Canalys report finds that Android overtook Nokia's Sybian operating system for the first time last year. 32.9 million Android-equipped phones were shipped in 2010, besting Symbian devices by less than two million units.

The success of Android operating system came as both HTC and Samsung posted record profits in 2010. Shipments of devices from HTC, which offers phones like the Inspire 4G, and Samsung, which produces the Galaxy S, combined made for almost half of Android smartphone shipments.

In a press release for the report, Canalys Analyst Tim Shepherd notes that 2011 might look a bit different for the Android platform. Verizon will move its focus away from the Droid range, but the overall market impact will mean less carrier-exclusive deals, while increasing the AT&T opportunity for Android vendors, such as HTC, Motorola and Samsung, he said.

To contact the reporter for this story call (646) 461 7294 or email r.bilton@ibtimes.com.

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