Android has taken over from Apple and now has the largest share of the installed base of smartphones among consumers in the UK, according to new figures provided to the Guardian by Kantar Worldpanel ComTech.

Google's mobile OS has a 36.9% share of the smartphones in use among consumers in the UK, the company says in its latest survey, which covers the four weeks to 23 January 2012. Apple's iPhone models have the next biggest share, with 28.5% of all handsets in use. The company does not split out brands, but it is likely that Apple is the most-used brand, with Android sales split among brands including Samsung, HTC, LG and Motorola.

In terms of market share – a snapshot of ongoing sales figures for the four weeks, rather than the phones in people's hands – Android handsets have just under half the market, while Apple has nearly a third. BlackBerry-maker RIM has just over 15%, with the remaining 6% split between more than five different platforms.

The data come as the survey company, which polls consumers and retailers (but not enterprises) about the handsets that they use and are purchasing, confirmed other surveys which indicate that more than half of the British population – 50.3% – now have a smartphone. It surveys users in the US, UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Australia.

In the US, the largest smartphone market in the west, Apple handsets outsold Android among consumers, with a 48.4% share compared with 42.8%, the company said. That indicates ongoing strength for Apple there, said Dominic Sunnebo, Kantar Worldpanel Comtech's global consumer insight director: "The jump we saw in Apple's share last period was clearly not just a blip caused by the iPhone 4S release. Although the majority of growth is coming from the new handset, Apple's latest pricing structure is also working in its favour with no discernible drop in sales of older iPhone 4 and 3GS models."

But the growth has not been evenly spread. In the UK, RIM, which is under increasing pressure from both Android and Apple handsets, saw its share of UK sales fall from 18.7% to 18.1%. However, Nokia's Symbian – effectively declared dead a year ago by its chief executive Stephen Elop – saw the most dramatic fall, with a halving of its share of the installed base in a year.

That was matched by a collapse in Symbian's share of UK sales, from 15.5% in January 2011 to 2.8% in 2012.

Yet even that remained ahead of the share of sales achieved by Nokia's new platform, Microsoft's Windows Phone, which grew from just 0.4% in the same four-week period a year ago to 2.2% in 2012.

According to Kantar Worldpanel, handsets running Windows Phone now have a 1% share of the UK installed base. Nokia looks likely to already be the largest single Windows Phone vendor, ahead of rivals such as Samsung and HTC.

Sunnebo commented: "For the first time ever, you are now in the minority if you don't own a smartphone. With more people jumping on the bandwagon, there is huge opportunity for both retailers and manufacturers. However, the competition is intense.



"Android holds on to its lead but Apple is making inroads, increasing its [market] share of the British market from 21.7% a year ago to 29.1% now." That figure refers to a snapshot of sales, rather than the installed base.

He added: "Windows Phone 7 is also creeping up, taking over 2% of the market for the first time with the Nokia Lumia 800 taking the lion's share. This looks set to continue with the expected launch of at least two new models at the Mobile World Congress conference. We forecast this will help it to grow its share to around 8% in the latter half of 2012."

Sunnebo said there were signs of hope for Nokia and Microsoft in owners' engagement with their devices, which emerged from more detailed interviews: "One of the real positives for Microsoft Windows Phone is how engaged its users appear to be with its devices: 81% of handset owners have used social networking on their device in the past month, higher than both iOS & Android. Meanwhile, three-quarters have used GPS, indicating that Nokia's decision to include Nokia maps for free was a price worth paying to drive user engagement."

Other data that emerges from the company's research:

• Android dominated sales in every country except the US, where Apple led.

• Android's sales share was highest in Spain, where it had 65.8% of sales.

• Android's sales share was lowest in France, at 42.3%.

• Symbian's sales market share is highest in Italy, at 19.2%, though that is substantially down from 46.8% a year ago.

• Apple's sales share is lowest in Spain, where it had just 9.2% of the market – the same as a year ago. Symbian previously dominated with 65.3% of sales; now it is the second, with 13.2%, but far behind Android.

• RIM's sales share is highest in the UK, at 15.5%, and lowest in Australia, at 0.7% – down there from just 3.7% a year ago.

The picture that emerges is that the market generally is split into two dominant ecosystems, of Apple and Android. RIM's share is being gradually eroded among consumers, but there is no large-scale shift visible yet towards Windows Phone – which was Elop's hope when he abandoned Symbian for Windows Phone, saying that the smartphone market was a war of ecosystems rather than a battle of handsets.

Smartphone data for countries Android iOS RIM WP7 Symbian WinMobile Bada Other Installed base Jan 2011 20.1 29.2 18.7 0.1 26.7 3.2 0.8 1.2 Installed based Jan 2012 36.9 28.5 18.1 1 13.1 1.3 0.7 0.4 Change 16.8 -0.7 -0.6 0.9 -13.6 -1.9 -0.1 -0.8 sales (market share) UK Jan 2011 37 21.7 23.3 0.4 15.5 0.8 1 0.4 UK Jan 2012 49.7 29.1 15.5 2.2 2.8 0.1 0.3 0.2 Germany Jan 2011 27.2 31.9 2.8 1.9 28 2.7 3.9 1.6 Germany Jan 2012 61.1 23.4 2 1.5 8.2 2 1.6 0.2 France Jan 2011 35.1 20.6 11.8 1.9 21.7 0.6 7.3 1.1 France Jan 2012 42.3 25.7 11.6 2 4.3 2.6 10.9 0.6 Italy Jan 2011 18.7 19.5 4 1.4 46.8 5.6 2.7 1.3 Italy Jan 2012 49.7 22.4 3.5 1.8 19.2 1.7 1.1 0.5 Spain Jan 2011 14 9.2 15.6 0.3 55.3 0.6 2.8 2.2 Spain Jan 2012 65.8 9.2 11 0.5 13.2 0.3 0 0 US Jan 2011 54.5 21.7 14.3 3.2 1.7 2.4 0 2.3 US Jan 2012 42.6 48.4 5.7 1.5 0.4 0.3 0 1.1 Australia Jan 2011 23.9 34.2 3.7 2.3 30.7 1.3 1.5 2.5 Australia Jan 2012 48.8 42.9 0.7 0.9 4.3 0.5 0 1.9

The data for the countries.