Android fueling the growth of the worldwide smartphone market

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63 million smartphones were shipped in the second quarter of 2010, marking a 50 percent growth in the smartphone market year on year. Smartphones running Google's Android operating system were at the heart of the strong growth.

According to a report released by market researcher International Data Corporation (IDC) on August 5, manufactures of Android-powered smartphones saw the highest year-over-year growth rates.

"Emerging smartphone suppliers, such as HTC, that are allied closely with Google gained share at the expense of the historic top smartphone players last quarter," says Kevin Restivo, senior research analyst with IDC's Worldwide Mobile Phone Tracker program.

"This is largely a result of greater consumer interest in smartphones generally and Android devices in particular."

Google CEO Eric Schmidt announced the company was selling around 200,000 Android-powered devices per day reported Reuters on August 5 while Lee M. Williams, Executive Director of Nokia's Symbian platform proudly announced the company shipped more than 27 million devices in the second quarter (approximately 300,000 per day) on August 4 said www.symbian.org.

IDC predicts the worldwide smartphone market will see "explosive growth" during the second half of 2010 as both Nokia and Research In Motion launch flagship smartphones and mobile vendors start unveiling devices running Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 software.

Nokia retained its position as the top worldwide mobile vendor in Q2 2010 followed by Research In Motion and Apple.

Top Five Mobile Phone Vendors Q2 2010
1. Nokia - 38.1%
2. Research In Motion - 17.8%
3. Apple - 13.3%
4. HTC - 7.6%
5. Samsung - 4.8%
Others - 18.4%