Android quest for global domination continues, according to new figures

Google Android sales top the charts for Q2 2013
Google picks up all the marbles... or jelly beans

Google's mobile operating system may be fragmented, but Android as a whole stills eats up the smartphone pie chart with 79 percent market share in the second quarter of 2013.

"Android continues to dominate with nearly 80 percent market share," wrote market research firm Gartner in a press release today.

Previously, Google-powered smartphones accounted for 64.2 percent of sales in the same quarter last year, according to Gartner.

This 14.8 percent jump further distances Android from the iOS platform among smartphones. Apple's share decreased from 18.8 percent to 14.2 percent worldwide in the second quarter year-over-year.

Microsoft on the march

If you run into 10 people who bought a smartphone in the second quarter, statistically eight out of them are likely to be Android owners. But maybe, just maybe one of those people is carrying a Windows Phone handset.

That's more likely now than it was last year, as Microsoft is inching its way up the mobile OS sales charts at 3.3 percent this past quarter.

A year ago, Windows Phone was behind former No. 3, BlackBerry, having just 2.6 percent of the worldwide smartphone market.

BlackBerry managed to capture just 2.7 percent of the market in the second quarter, down from 5.2 percent last year even with BB10 in full swing this year.

Samsung still dominates devices

Among hardware manufacturers, Samsung was in line with its software partner, Google, trumping Apple with a healthy 31.7 percent of sales. The Galaxy S4 launch was no small part of that success.

Apple's hardware numbers remained the same as its software, as the company's phones and iOS platform are tied together.

Rounding out the top five in today's report were LG at 5.1 percent, Lenovo at 4.7 percent and Chinese phone manufacturer ZTE charting with 4.3 percent of sales.

Other vendors accounted for the remaining 40 percent of smartphone sales in the second quarter.

Matt Swider