Google's Android mobile operating system has overtaken Apple's iPhone and Canada's Blackberry to become the second biggest smartphone platform after Nokia's Symbian.

According to bean counters at research firm Gartner Nokia flogged 29.5 million smartphones during the third quarter of the year for a 36.6 per cent share of the worldwide market. This is down from 44.6 per cent a year ago and part of the much predicted fall of the Symbian operating system. Sales of Android-powered smartphones increased to 20.5 million units, giving the Android platform a 25.5 per cent market share, up from just 3.5 per cent a year ago, Gartner said.

Apple's iPhone was next on sales of 13.5 million units for a 16.7 per cent market share, but this was down from 17.1 per cent a year ago. Rim was in fourth position with sales of 11.9 million units. Its market share dropped to 14.8 per cent from 20.7 per cent a year ago.

Microsoft's Windows Mobile continued its slide to 2.8 per cent market share, down from 7.9 per cent a year ago. However this figure was before the release of Windows Mobile 7 which will take some time to make any impact in the figures.