• ZDnet, Wednesday, May 19, 2010 11:42 AM

Google's Android has now surpassed Microsoft's Windows Mobile operating system -- and moved into fourth place with a 9.6% of share of the smartphone market -- reports Gartner. That moves Microsoft down to fifth place with a 6.8% market share.

Bigger picture, Nokia's Symbian still rules the worldwide smartphone market with a 44.3% market share, while RIM comes in second at 19.4%, and Apple's iPhone OS follows in third with 15.4%. Still, year-on-year, Nokia's share dropped 4.5%, and RIM's went down 1.2%, while Apple's went up 4.9%, and Android increasing an impressive 8%. Windows Mobile's share, meanwhile, dropped 3.4%. Worldwide, the cellphone market grew 17% year-over-year, with a staggering 49% jump in smartphone sales from January through March of 2010. Indeed, "Smartphone sales to end users saw their strongest year-on-year increase since 2006," said Carolina Milanesi, research VP at Gartner.

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