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"Research and advisory company Gartner has released its analysis of worldwide mobile phone sales for the first quarter of 2010, and when it comes to smartphones, the numbers look really good for Apple and Google. Microsoft, on the other hand, might want to reevaluate its strategy for the Windows Phone 7, the success of which might determine the company's fate in the smartphone market. \nAccording to Gartner, which measures smartphone sales, Google's Android has surged to fourth place overall (see table below), growing from 1.6% to 9.6% market share in a year. Apple's iPhone OS is in third place with 15.4% in Q1 2010, also a healthy increase from the 10.5% share it had in the first quarter of 2009. \nSymbian is still the top dog, but its share of the market declined from 48.8% to 44.3% in one year. RIM is number two with a small drop in market share, but the way things are going, it might be surpassed by Apple's iPhone OS in less than a year. \n\n\n\n\nLooking at the entire mobile devices market, smartphones are still a relatively small blip on the radar. Nokia dominates, having shipped 110 million units in Q1 2010 and holding 35% of the market; in comparison, Apple's sale of 8.3 million devices and 2.7% market share seems puny. \nStill, the smartphone grew an amazing 49% in the first three months of 2010. \"In the first quarter of 2010, smartphone sales to end users saw their strongest year-on-year increase since 2006,\" said Carolina Milanesi, research vice president at Gartner. \"This growth is a huge opportunity for well-positioned players such as Google and Apple; Nokia and Microsoft will have to improve their smartphone offerings soon in order to stay relevant. \nSee Gartner's entire report here.\n\n\nFor more mobile coverage, follow Mashable Mobile on Twitter or become a fan on Facebook\n\n"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2010/05/19/android-iphone-os-growth/>