Android continues to power up the smartphone charts, topping US sales in Q3 and accounting for almost half the smartphones sold in the country.
Devices running the Google operating system took 43.6% of sales in the market during the period, compared to 26.2% for Apple and 24.2% for RIM, Canalys revealed.
Another analyst firm, NPD, pegged Android sales at an even higher 44% of phones purchased, up 11 points from Q2.
Sequentially, Android mostly took share away from RIM, NPD calculated. Apple iOS's share remained largely unchanged at 23%, and the iPhone 4 was the top-selling single mobile device for the quarter.
But on a year-on-year basis, iOS share declined 21%, while RIM OS fell 53%.
The most popular Android phones in the market during the quarter were the LG Cosmos, Motorola's Droid X and the HTC EVO 3G.
The market share pattern was repeated in global markets, Canalys added. Apple ranked as second-top vendor with a 17% market share compared to RIM’s 15%, but Android headed both with a 25% share.
Nokia still topped the list, despite its share falling from 40% to 33%, but the Finnish vendor will be concerned by how close the combined figures for Android devices now are.
Globally, demand for smartphones was up 95% year-on-year, but grew particularly fast in BRICI [Brazil, Russia, India, China, Indonesia] markets, with sales up 112%, Canalys said.
“Where smartphone growth in mature western markets has been driven by high-end products, in many emerging markets where disposable income is more constrained, growth is being driven by good-quality products that can attract mass-market volumes in the mid-tier of the market,” principal analyst Chris Jones said.
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