British Android smartphone sales quadruple

Asavin Wattanajantra

Sales of Android smartphone sales in the UK have grown by a massive 350 per cent, fuelled by the increased focus on the Google OS by manufacturers.

With devices like the Google Nexus One, HTC Desire and Samsung Galaxy X coming out, UK mobile phone owners made a big move to these smartphones.

Android’s share of the UK mobile contract market grew from 3 per cent in the first quarter of 2010 to 13.2 per cent in the second quarter, said GfK Retail and Technology research.

Although the contract market sales overall stayed the same, Android sales grew by 350 per cent.

Phones with an advanced OS continued to grow, reaching 66.7 per cent in Q2, compared to 55 per cent in Q1 of 2010.

Since 2010 growth has been continuous, and in June phones with an advanced Os represented 73.5 per cent of the contract market.

"The figures suggest an increasing number of consumers are now asking for Android handsets by name," said GfK analyst Megan Baldock.

"Operating Systems are no longer simply a by-product but a key selling point in their own right."

The iPhone 4 would not have had much of an impact on these statistics, as it has just been released, but it will be interesting to see what kind of a dent it would make on Android market share.