Android Tops, Followed by iOS in Worldwide Smartphone Market

According to the recent analysis from research firm Canalys, Google's Android platform has achieved a global market share of 48%. Android has remained the dominant player in the Asia Pacific region, with 39.8 million units being shipped from there, followed by 35 million in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and 32.9 million in the Americas.

Android, however, is facing many lawsuits from several competitors including Oracle, Apple, and Microsoft for patent infringement. Recently, Google lost a battle to Apple, Microsoft, RIM, and a few other tech giants when the companies teamed up and outbid Google at an auction for Nortel's wireless patents, which could result in big licensing fees for Google.

Apple's iOS is second place worldwide with a market share of 19% and shipping around 20.34 million iPhones. Apple was able to overtake Nokia and become the world's leading individual smartphone vendor. Apple has had very impressive recent quarters and with the next-generation iPhone anticipated in Q3, it's likely that Apple's position will grow even stronger in the second half of the year.

Samsung, which manufactures handsets that run both on Android and Bada OS, shipped around 17 million devices, a rise of 421% versus a year ago. "Samsung has failed to fully capitalize on Nokia's weakened state around the world, as the Finnish company rides out a challenging transitional period," Canalys analyst Chris Jones said.

The analysis states that RIM, although had a very bad quarter in North America with its market share slipping to 12% from 33% a year ago, is still the number one vendor in Latin America, South Africa and Indonesia.