According to a new report, Android has snapped up nearly half of the market share globally amongst smartphone platforms, leaving the competitors in the dust.

Research firm Canalys, says that 35 of the 56 countries surveyed, reported that Android was the most popular platform amongst smartphone users. The Asian Pacific Market was the largest regional market.

According to this survey, Apple’s popular iPhone is a distant second, with only a reported 19% of global market share- although the i-OS has claimed top spot from Nokia’s Symbian platform.

“The iPhone has been a phenomenal success story for Apple and a watershed product for the market,’ said Canalys VP and Principal Analyst Chris Jones. ‘It’s an impressive success story, given that Apple has only been in the smart phone market for four years. With the next-generation iPhone anticipated in Q3, it’s likely that Apple’s position will grow even stronger in the second half of the year.”

Research in Motion has seen its’ share of trouble in Q2, with its’ current market share slipping from 33% a year ago to 12% currently.

‘It’s easy to be negative about BlackBerry in the US, but it’s important to remember that in other markets, particularly emerging markets, it continues to see significant interest and uptake of its devices, for example in Indonesia and South Africa where it is the leading smart phone vendor,’ said Jones. ‘Nonetheless, it must continue to innovative and recapture lost momentum. It’s critical that the next-generation BlackBerry OS 7-based products launch ahead of the upcoming holiday season to compete in the market.”

Speaking to Propertywire.ca, Mike Cunningham, Realtor, Bosley Real Estate Limited is perhaps a reflection of the data collected in this survey, having switched from using a Blackberry earlier this year: “I was a Blackberry user for years until I finally became so fed up with it that I switched to an iPhone. This was an eye opening experience when I realized all that I was missing

 In my experience, the Android market has a long way to go. My friends and colleagues are iPhone or Blackberry users only; I've seen very few Android phones in the past year. I still feel that Apple will continue on its roll by continuing to provide the consumer with top notch products and applications.”

And as Cunningham suggests, even though some smartphone platforms are experiencing loss of market share, there is always opportunity to grow: “The Smartphone market is one that is just too hard to stay on top of. Everything is constantly advancing and it's impossible for the general consumer to keep up with it. People grow comfortable with a device but realize that the newer and better version will be coming to the market shortly. It's a never ending process.”