Gartner: Android ends Q2 with 43.4% worldwide market share

Google's (NASDAQ:GOOG) Android mobile operating system now dominates 43.4 percent of the global smartphone market, up from 17.2 percent as the second quarter of 2010 closed, according to new data published by research and advisory firm Gartner.

Worldwide sales of mobile devices totaled 428.7 million units in the second quarter of 2011, up 16.5 percent year-over-year, Gartner states. Smartphone sales increased 74 percent year-over-year and made up 25 percent of overall second quarter purchases. Android sales topped the 46.7 million mark during the second quarter, almost doubling sales of devices running longtime market leader Symbian at 23.8 million. Symbian--which powered device sales of 25.4 million a year ago--now maintains a market share of 22.1 percent, down from 40.9 percent 12 months earlier.

Sales of units running Apple's (NASDAQ:AAPL) iOS increased to 19.6 million compared to 8.7 million a year ago, with iOS now third in global market share at 18.2 percent, compared to 14.1 percent a year earlier. Research In Motion's (NASDAQ:RIMM) BlackBerry continues to slide, dropping from 18.7 percent market share a year ago to 11.7 percent at the end of the second quarter--BlackBerry device sales nevertheless increased year-over-year from 11.6 million to 12.6 million. Samsung's bada is next at 1.9 percent market share, followed by Microsoft's (NASDAQ:MSFT) Windows Phone/Windows Mobile at 1.6 percent.

Gartner anticipates mobile device sales will increase around 12 percent this year. "We expect manufacturers and distributors to remain cautious about raising their stock levels in the second half of 2011, following the recent uncertainty on the world financial markets," Gartner principal research analyst Annette Zimmermann said in a statement.

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