Android growth kept pace with RIM in 2008-09, Gartner numbers show

There's been absolutely no doubt that Android's usage share has skyrocketed in the last year, and here's another example. Gartner released figures today that show a 3.4 percentage point climb over 2008. That said, it's the 2009-2010 numbers that we're really going to want to look at, as the first Android device (the HTC Dream or T-Mobile G1) wasn't even available until late October of that year. Anyhoo, here are the OS numbers as given by Gartner:

  • Symbian: 46.9 percent, down from 52.4 percent in 2008.
  • RIM: 19.9 percent, up from 16.6 percent
  • iPhone OS: 14.4 percent, up from 8.2 percent.
  • Windows Mobile: 8.7 percent, down from 11.8 percent.
  • Linux: 4.7 percent, down from 7.6 percent.
  • Android: 3.9 percent, up from 0.5 percent.
  • webOS: 0.7 percent. Did not exist in 2008.
  • Other: 0.6 percent, down from 2.9 percent.

Symbian obviously still dominates the world market. But for Android to see the percentage growth that it did, we know it's doing something right. Can it keep that momentum? Ask us again in a year. [Gartner]

Phil Nickinson