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  (Photo: Reuters)
  Google's Android platform has taken almost 50 per cent of the global smartphone market, dominating in the Asia-Pacific region, research firm Canalys said.

In the second quarter of 2011, 428.7 million mobile devices were sold – 60 million more than last year – and roughly 25 percent of the total sales were smartphones, according to a report released by Gartner today.

Smartphone sales have increased 74 percent compared to the same period last year when Nokia's Symbian was still the reigning smartphone king. However this year, tables have turned in favor of Android smartphones, the new king.

Nokia dominated the global smartphone market in the 2Q of 2010 with a 40.9 percent market share. But this year it shrunk almost half its size to 22.1 percent market share.

Google's Android, on the other hand, absorbed Nokia's smartphone market share rising from 17.2 percent market share in 2010 to 43.4 percent in 2011.

Apple's iOS also made long strides in the smartphone market competition, outselling itself more by than 100 percent compared to same period last year.

Apple sold 8.7 million iPhones in 2Q 2010, but this year it sold 19.6 million iPhones, 10.9 million more.

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Apple still lags behind Android and Nokia, but if current rates are maintained it should easily overcome Nokia by this time next year and position itself as number two in the smartphone market.

Results for RIM, Blackberry manufacturer, are sweet-and-sour this year. Although the company sold more than 1 million devices compared to last year's second quarter, it fell from second to fourth position in total smartphone sales and its market share shrunk from 18.7 percent to 11.7 percent. The evaluation: more sour than sweet.

Although Nokia remains number one in total mobile sales (cellphones and smartphones) around the world, this position may be overtaken by Samsung if Nokia's efforts in the quickly expanding smartphone market don't improve.

Luckily for Nokia, a Windows "Mango" smartphone under its sleeves is about to be released. But due to the fact that Windows smartphones have been poor in sales, speculation of it being a flop are great.