Android phone sales soar

886% sales increase

While Apple may be dominating the global tech sector and seeing record profits, Google's Android mobiles have been quietly performing strongly as well.

In fact, statistics from research firm Canalys suggest that the firm is doing extremely well with shipments reportedly increasing 886 percent year-on-year from the second quarter of 2009.

This is even bigger than Apple, who while second in smartphone growth, only saw a 61 percent increase in the same period. However the smartphone sector has been steadily increasing with Q2 sales rising by 64 percent.

While Apple may have dominated headlines due to its brand images, Canalys' Pete Cunningham said that Android's success was due to the release of "highly compelling" phones.

"We're really seeing major vendors getting behind the platform," he said, citing large manufacturers such as HTC, Samsung and Sony Ericsson, who all use the platform and have helped drive shipments.

Market share

Due to the diverse brands, Android has been able to get a higher market share over Apple. Despite this, the most popular platform is still Symbian, most commonly found on Nokia and certain Sony Ericsson phones.

Symbian has grown in popularity since the Symbian Foundation made its code open source, meaning that any organisation or individual can use and modify the platform's underlying source code. However Apple's popularity in the media and its brand awareness has meant that the iPhone's operating system has always overshadowed it.

Nokia is the most popular phone maker in the world and the operating system it opts to use in the future could determine a clear market leader. While it is a ‘mass market' for operating systems, Nokia is reportedly seeking to switch to another platform in order to compete with other brands.

Nokia recently launched Meego with Intel to compete, but no-one is sure what Nokia could do in the future.

In comparison, media-darling Apple saw the iPhone achieve the second largest growth during the period, despite high-profile issues with the iPhone 4G.

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Apple profits beat forecasts | Smartphone sales boost Samsung profits |

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