­The latest market share figures for smartphone operating system sales (OS), from Kantar Worldpanel ComTech, show that Android is the number one OS, for the first time, across three European markets - UK (38%), France (35.9%) and Germany (35.5%). Android has also achieved massive new market shares of 58.3% in Japan and 54.7% in the US. These figures have been published today for sales covering the 12 weeks ending 20 March 2011.

Dominic Sunnebo, Consumer Insight Director - Global, Kantar Worldpanel ComTech explains: "Whilst it may seem that Android is moving forward virtually unchallenged in Europe, once you start to dig a little deeper, it can be seen that each country has a very different OS make-up. For example, in the UK,  BlackBerry is responsible for nearly 25% of all Smartphone sales with its customer base increasingly dominated by under 25s and females; while in Germany BlackBerry's market share is just 3.4%, as the brand is still primarily seen as a business-based device."

In Germany Symbian, whilst under considerable pressure from other operators, still accounted for over 25% of all sales in the latest 12 weeks. In Italy Symbian continues to be the leading OS, down on the previous period but still holding an impressive 46.9% market share, with Nokia Symbian models making up four out of the five top selling models.

Dominic Sunnebo continues: "With a lot of attention focused on Android and Apple, it is easy to overlook the fact that Nokia is the world's largest mobile manufacturer by some margin. Nokia has undoubtedly fallen behind in the Smartphone arena; however it remains a brand which consumers trust.

"Recently announced Smartphone releases such as the Nokia E6 may help slow Nokia's share loss, but these types of Symbian based devices are certainly evolutionary rather than revolutionary.

"The key to Nokia's success will be the speed at which it will be able to develop a competitive Windows-based Smartphone. As Nokia's core customer base does not comprise early adopters, a compelling range of Windows handsets brought out in the next 12-18 months would mean a large, untapped market of consumers could be tempted to move into the Smartphone market - this is where Nokia could begin to fight back."

March marked the first full month that the iPhone was available on Verizon (previously AT&T held exclusivity), in the USA. Dominic said: "Whilst it appears Android is moving forward unchallenged, in the USA, Apple is biting back with it being the top brand on Verizon in the four weeks to 20 March, taking an impressive 30.1% of all phone sales, but perhaps more importantly taking iOS market share back up to 27.2%."