Android top selling OS in smartphone market: Gartner

Google's operating system, Androidhas extended its lead in the smartphone market, as Apple's sales were stalled ahead of the launch of its new iPhone 5, according to new research.

Industry analysts at Gartner claimed that Android was installed on 64.1 per cent of smarphones sold worldwide in the second quarter, compared to 43.4 per cent a year ago, as opposed to 18.8 per cent of Apple's smartphone operating system market share.

Android's sales benefited from the decline of Nokia's largely abandoned smartphone operating system, Symbian and BlackBerry'sResearch In Motion (RIM), whose market share was more than halved, from 11.7 percent to 5.2 per cent, the Telegraph reports.

According to the research, Apple's smartphone operating system market share in the second quarter was 18.8 per cent, up slightly from 18.2 per cent a year ago. Gartner said iOS users appeared to be holding off purchasing a new device before the expected introduction of theiPhone 5 in September.

The study also showed that Microsoft's slow response to the smartphone boom continued, with shares of Windows Mobile growing from 1.6 per cent to only 2.7 per cent.

On the manufacturing side, Apple and Samsung maintained their rivalry ahead of other players such as HTC and Huawei, the paper said.

"Samsung and Apple continued to dominate the smartphone market, together taking about half the market share, and widening the gap to other manufacturers," the paper quoted analyst Anshul Gupta, as saying.