Research firm IDC reports that Google's Android platform is extending its dominance in the smartphone market worldwide.

iPhone owners under the delusion that they were in the majority, are in fact now in the minority by a margin of 4:1. IDC reports that there were four Android phones for every iPhone shipped in the second quarter. That's up from 2.5 to 1 in the same period last year.

Samsung and other mobile phone manufacturers shipped almost 105 million Android smartphones in the April-June quarter, giving Android 68 percent of the worldwide market, up from 47 percent last year.

Samsung alone accounted for 44 percent, or 50.2 million of the units sold. In fact, Samsung shipped more Android phones than the next seven Android phone makers combined, notes IDC. Apple shipped 26 million iPhones, accounting for 17 percent of the market, off slightly from 19 percent the previous year.

Research in Motion and Nokia both experienced significant declines in shipments with market share collapsing below five percent for each vendor.

We'll have to wait and see how much of a boost the new iPhone model generates when it's released in early fall.

It remains to be seen if Windows will figure significantly in the smartphone space, but it's still encouraging that market share grew to 3.5 percent in this quarter up from 2.3 percent previously.


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