was the top seller among competing platforms in the fourth quarter,
which saw a booming demand for smart phones, according to a pair of
studies released Monday.
Globally, Android managed to overtake Symbian as the
top platform in the quarter, according to data from market research
firm Canalys.
platform has benefitted from adoption by some of the world’s largest
mobile-phone makers, such as HTC, Samsung and LG. Symbian, by contrast,
resides mostly on handsets manufactured by its owner —
In the U.S., Android was also the top mobile platform for the period, ranking above that of the popular iOS from
The competitive dynamics may shift in the first quarter of this year, when the iPhone makes its debut on
“The U.S. landscape will shift dramatically this coming year, as a result of the Verizon-Apple agreement,” said
will move its focus away from the Droid range, but the overall market
impact will mean less carrier-exclusive deals, while increasing the
On a global basis, shipments of Android phones
reached 32.9 million, outpacing Symbian shipments of 31 million,
according to Canalys. Android shipped 12.1 million units in the U.S.
On a handset basis, the top-selling smart-phone
vendor in the U.S. for the quarter was Apple, with the iPhone 4 in the
No. 1 slot and the older iPhone 3GS at No. 4, according to data from
Android handsets held three of the top five slots. The Droid X and Droid 2 from
Windows Phone 7 from
launched during the fourth quarter, but was a relatively small seller.
NPD said the platform accounted for just 2 percent of smart-phone sales
for the period. The WebOS platform from Palm — which is now owned by
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