Google’s Android operating system (OS) powered 69 percent of smartphones sold in the last three months of last year, though it did lose some of its market share to iOS after the launch of the iPhone 5.
The OS also accounted for 34 percent of all mobile phones shipped, almost half of which are smartphones, according to analyst firm Canalys. 11 percent of mobile phones run iOS.
Canalys’s statistics also showed the gap between the top three phone vendors - Samsung, Apple and Nokia - widening. Samsung remains the biggest phonemaker in the world, followed by Apple and Nokia.
The biggest success story was Chinese firm Lenovo, which grew 216 percent year-on-year to move above Sony into fifth place.