According to a recent study conducted by Gartner, the first quarter of 2010 witnessed a whopping 707 percent increase in Android sales. As a result, the sales of the Google Android OS-based smartphones have surpassed the sales of the Microsoft Windows Mobile-based handsets around the world.

Going by the Gartner statistics, there was a 17 percent increase, to 314.7 million units, in the global sales of mobile phones. Out of these numbers, the sales of smartphones accounted for as many as 54.3 million units; which indicates a notable 48.7 percent jump from the same quarter last year figures.

In terms of specific mobile OS market share, Gartner revealed that the first quarter scene was still dominated by Symbian, despite the fact that its year-on-year market share dropped from 48.8 percent last year to 44.3 percent this time round.

Placed at a distant second rank was BlackBerry OS which boasts 19.4 percent of the market share – a marginal drop from the 2009 first quarter figures of 20.6 percent. At the third slot was the iPhone OS, which witnessed an increase in market share from 10.5 percent to 15.4 percent.

The Android OS now holds the fourth place, with its market share increasing from a mere 1.6 percent to 9.6 percent; while a year-on-year plunge from 10.2 percent to 6.8 percent market share, brought Windows Mobile down to the fifth place.