Android sales form half the global smartphone market

A new report from industry analyst firm Gartner has revealed Android makes up just over half of the smartphone market worldwide, according to new sales figures.

In the fourth quarter period of 2011, almost 76 million Android handsets were sold, giving Google's operating system a 50.9 per cent share of global sales. Apple managed a 23.8 per cent share, with around 35 million devices sold.

Gartner's figure revealed that while Nokia may be about to give Symbian its last rites, that didn't stop the platform claiming the third spot with an 11.7 per cent slice (17.4 million handsets sold).

RIM's BlackBerry handsets account for 8.8 per cent of the market with only 13 million smartphones being bought in Q4.

Meanwhile, Windows Phone sales are still taking baby steps. A mere 1.9 per cent share is claimed, though, it should be noted that Nokia's Lumia range only started turning up during the fourth quarter so the lion's share of Nokia Windows Phone sales probably aren't accounted for.

For the entire year Nokia comes out on top with 422 million devices shifted, giving just under a quarter of 2011's global market share at 24 per cent, though, this represented a decline in sales for the company from 2010's whole year figures.

Samsung clocked 313.9 million handset sales while Apple sold 89.2 million smartphones in total last year.