Some 68.1 percent of smartphones shipped in the second quarter of this year were powered by Android, a jump of more than 15 percent since last quarter, according to new figures released by research firm IDC. The increase has been driven primarily by Korean manufacturer Samsung, which shipped more Android smartphones in the quarter than the next seven vendors combined, and has cut significantly into Apple's share of the market, with iOS dropping from 23 percent to 16.9 percent over the same period.

As Android and iOS expand, powering a record total of 85 percent of devices in Q2, alternatives such as BlackBerry OS, Symbian, and Windows Phone continue to be squeezed. Despite Research In Motion's (RIM) financial woes, BlackBerry OS managed to take third place, shipping on 4.8 percent of devices, but this figure is a far cry from the 11.5 percent share that the system commanded in Q2 2011.

Symbian fares worse, having fallen from 16.9 percent last year to just 4.4 percent in the latest figures, a drop of almost 75 percent. Meanwhile, the combined share of Windows Mobile and Windows Phone 7 sits at 3.5 percent, with Nokia's high-profile Lumia range having so far failed to stimulate significant interest in the platform.