The rise of the Android

Worldwide growth of 886 percent over last year, says Canalys. Android phone sales at 27 percent share, overtaking Apple iPhone's 23 percent in the US, says Nielsen. Android to match Symbian's 30 percent share in 2014, says Gartner.

In sheer impact, Google's young smartphone OS was the top technology of 2010.

So should we in India be really excited, with smartphones at under five percent of the mobile installed base? Well, yes, for by sales value per month, smartphones in India are already be at 20 percent share, and rising.

In Asia (and the world) every fifth handset sold is a smartphone. And being way more expensive, in terms of sales value smartphones now account for nearly 50 percent of the Asia market.

So wherefore, the rise of Android?

It ain't just Google. Windows Mobile is backed by Microsoft, and is almost irrelevant at 5 percent share and dropping. It's not just the open source: Linux itself didn't make it as a successful phone OS, though Android draws from the Linux kernel. read more at ciol