Smartphones running Google's Android operating system have overtaken Apple's iOS for the first time in Australia, but it's their larger tablet cousins that have emerged as the "present of choice" this Christmas.

Research from analyst firm Telsyte found 44 per cent of the more than 10 million smartphones in use in Australia were now running Android, just creeping ahead of iOS on 43 per cent.

On top ... Android devices, such as the flagship Samsung Galaxy S III, are outselling Apple's iPhone in Australia for the first time.

It is a meteoric rise for Android, which in 2010 had just six per cent of the market compared to Apple's 39 per cent.

Telsyte analyst Foad Fadaghi said the rise was due to the wider range of handsets running Android and successful flagship devices such as the Samsung Galaxy S III.