The Android OS was on three out of every four smartphones shipped in the third quarter of 2012. Its 91.5% year-over-year growth was nearly double the overall market growth rate.

According to figures from International Data Corporation (IDC), 136.0 million Android smartphone were shipped worldwide in the period July to September 2012, accounting for 75.0% of the total of 181.1 million smartphone shipments.

The breakdown of smartphone shipments compared with the same period in 2011 are shown in this chart and table:

(click in table to enlarge)

Apart from Android, the only other operating systems to show year-on-year growth were iOS and Windows Phone 7 which went from a paltry 1.2% share of the market in 3Q2011 to a dismal 2.0% in 3Q2012. With only 3.6 million units shipped it was out-shipped by Symbian, even though Symbian suffered the largest year-on-year decrease (-77.3%) of any operating system.

Commenting on the figures, Kevin Restivo, senior research analyst with IDC's Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, said:

"The share decline of smartphone operating systems not named iOS since Android's introduction isn't a coincidence. The smartphone operating system isn't an isolated product, it's a crucial part of a larger technology ecosystem. Google has a thriving, multi-faceted product portfolio. Many of its competitors, with weaker tie-ins to the mobile OS, do not. This factor and others have led to loss of share for competitors with few exceptions."

So while iOS may still hold sway in the tablet sector, as far as the much bigger smartphone market is concerned Android is the platform that dominates.