According to market analysts Canalys, Android-powered smartphones accounted for 32.9% of the market in the final quarter of 2010, with Nokia coming in second with 30.6%. Apple beat out RIM, makers of Blackberry, to third with 16% over 14.4%. Microsoft, with Windows Phone 7 and its legacy devices, held 3.1% of the market, shrinking from over 7% in 2009; Android climbed from 8.7%; everyone else shrank in market share.
Meanwhile, in the world of tablets, Apple’s iPad is still dominating the market at 75% share; however Android-power tablets such as the Samsung Galaxy Tab are on the rise from the third quarter of 2010 where they had just 2.3% marketshare to the iPad’s 95.5%, to 21.6% at the end of Q4 2010. This even includes the fact that Apple shipped over 3 million (75%) more iPads in the fourth quarter than in the third.
Meanwhile, Android’s security worries have not abated. A security exploit in the Android Browser that was discovered in all versions up to 2.2 has re-surfaced in the 2.3 version, despite the fact it was said to be fixed. While the issue is not identical, the outcome is the same as the fix can be worked around. The bug allows an attacker to upload anything from the phone’s SD card simply when a user clicks on a link to a malicious website, potentially stealing photos, application data, and more.
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