Android smartphone shipments boom: Industry tracker

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) - Android software powered three out of four smartphones shipped worldwide in the recently ended third quarter as the Google-backed mobile platform dominated the market, industry tracker IDC said on Thursday.

Android smartphones shipments surged to 136 million, topping those in the same three-month period last year by slightly more than 90 per cent, according to an IDC Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker report.

The Android share of the market climbed to 75 per cent from 57.5 per cent in a year-over-year comparison. A total of 181.1 million smartphones were shipped in the third quarter of this year, according to IDC.

"Android has been one of the primary growth engines of the smartphone market since it was launched in 2008," said IDC mobile phones research manager Ramon Llamas.