Smartphones powered by Google’s Android operating system increased their global market dominance to 74 per cent in the first quarter, according to new figures released on Tuesday by Gartner.
In the same quarter of 2012, Android phones accounted for 57 per cent of the market, the analyst group said.
Samsung was the market leader with sales of 64.7 million smartphones, representing a 31 per cent market share, up from 28 per cent a year ago. Apple slid to 18 per cent from 22.5 per cent, Gartner said.
In total, smartphone sales grew worldwide by 43 per cent to 210 million devices, Gartner said.