Global market share for Windows Mobile dropped about 3 percent since last year, while Android captured 3.5 percent of the market, according to data from Gartner.

Global market share for Windows Mobile dropped about 3 percent since last year, while Android captured 3.5 percent of the market, according to data from Gartner.

Windows Mobile had 7.9 percent of the market in the third quarter of 2009, down from 11.1 percent during the same time period last year. Sales dropped from 4 million in the third quarter of 2008 to 3.2 million this year.

Symbian dominated global market share with 44.6 percent, followed by BlackBerry maker Research in Motion, with 20.8 percent. Apple came in at number three with its iPhone OS, which captured 17.1 percent of the market. Windows Mobile and Android rounded out the top five.

Android did not have any market share during the third quarter of 2008 since the first Android-based phone, the T-Mobile G1, did not debut until October of that year. This year, however, there have been several Android releases, including Sprint's HTC Hero, T-Mobile's MyTouch, and the Motorola Droid, among others.

That resulted in about 1.4 million in sales and 3.5 percent of the global market, according to Gartner.

Symbian's numbers represent a 5 percent drop from last year. RIM and Apple, however, saw gains in the last 12 months.

RIM's market share was up about 5 percent, from 5.8 million in shares during the third quarter of 2008 to 8.5 million during this last quarter. On the iPhone front, Apple was up about 4 percent, from 4.7 million sales last year to 7 million this year.

Palm's Web OS, meanwhile, captured about 1.1 percent of the market this quarter.

Carolina Milanesi, research director for mobile devices at Gartner, said that Windows Mobile is likely faltering because most think of the OS as an enterprise-based business.

"Android has shown a lot of potential as a consumer space and that is where Microsoft has been struggling the most," she wrote in an e-mail.

There is the perception that Microsoft "is more about enterprise than consumer, and therefore it is not seen as sexy," Milanesi said. There is also "a lack of an intuitive OS designed for use on a phone rather than on a PC."

Milanesi believes that Windows Mobile 6.5 will help Microsoft "stabilize share loss" but doesn't expect any major changes in the near future. The open-source movement, witnessed with Symbian and Android, meanwhile, "leaves Microsoft at a cost disadvantage," she concluded.