No one would argue that, compared to the iPhone at least, the first year for smartphones running Google's Android platform has been rather slow going. With the recent rash of 'gPhone' announcements and releases, it's obvious something is changing, however, and rapidly. According to Gartner analyst Ken Dulaney, this is only the beginning for Android, which he expects lead all other smartphone platforms, save the Symbian OS, in only a couple of years.

He predicts by 2012 the Android OS will account for account for 14.5 percent of the smartphone market. That's ahead of the iPhone, Windows Mobile, and BlackBerry with their 13.7 percent, 12.8 percent, and 12.5 percent share, respectively; an impressive leap in market share for Android, which today is used in only about 2 percent of smartphones.

Symbian, on the other hand, will continue to lead worldwide with 39 percent, down from 50 percent today, of all smartphones sold.

Palm's fledgling webOS will only reach 2 percent of the market by 2012, according to Gartner.

[via ComputerWorld]