Android continues to take the European market by storm, with its share of the big five countries growing from 38.8 per cent in May 2011 to 60 per cent in May 2012.

The figures come from smartphone sales data compiled by Kantar Worldpanel ComTech, which found that the past few months have seen a surge in Android sales, particularly in Spain and Germany. In terms of market share, Android now holds 52 per cent of the UK smartphone market; 69 per cent of Germany; 56 per cent of France; 47 per cent of Italy; and 79 per cent of Spain.

“There was a period towards the start of this year where Android’s share began to flatline,” said Dominic Sunnebo, global consumer insight director at Kantar. “But in Spain, recessionary pressures are clearly hitting consumers’ wallets –demonstrated by the budget Samsung Galaxy Mini topping the country’s sales charts.  In Germany, the economy is clearly in a very different place, however, its major networks offer very low subsidies on handset purchases making it one of the most expensive countries in Europe to buy a smartphone.  This means that smartphone penetration is the lowest throughout the major European economies.  As a result, brands such as Huawei, which sell low-end Android models, are now starting to make inroads with almost 200,000 Huawei smartphones sold in Germany this year.”

Most of the growth is coming at the detriment of Symbian devices and to a lesser degree, RIM’s Blackberry OS.

Across the pond in the US, RIM’s market share remains under intense pressure, falling to 5.2 per cent in the latest 12 weeks, down from 9.2 per cent a year ago. Android has also lost some footing in the US, slipping by 3.9 per cent year on year, while Apple has climbed steadily to 37.3 per cent with iOS.

“A year ago, RIM sales in the big five European countries were similar to that of the US.   However, over the past 12 months there has been a paradigm shift with European RIM sales now around double that of RIM in its former US stronghold – this is historically down to geographic reasons with BlackBerry being founded in Canada,” said Sunnebo.

At present, Microsoft’s WP7 holds over three per cent share in most major markets, with its share highest in Germany and the US.  Although the majority of WP7 customers in the US are first time smartphone owners, a significant proportion are also upgrading from previous generation WinMobile devices.

Sunnebo said: “Our data clearly shows that in the US, LTE/4G handset capability is crucial for brands wanting to steal existing smartphone consumers.  As WP7 handsets with this capability start to become more prevalent, we expect to see signs of Android, RIM and iOS customers switching to the Microsoft platform.”

OS (Operating System) Share – Smartphone Sales