Android remains the world’s most popular operating system in Q3, iPhone 5 gives it heat in the States

Android has grown its share almost all over the globe and remains the world’s most popular operating system, according to the latest report by UK-based analysts from Kantar Worldpanel ComTech.

The Kantar report focuses on the state of the mobile market in the United States, the UK and Europe as a whole in the third quarter of 2012.

So what are the numbers? Android leads in the United States, but with less. Its commanding 66.4% share has shrunken down to 57.5%, cannibalized by the growth of the iPhone which now has a 35.7% share. Interestingly, RIM has now become less popular than Windows Phone, but both have a very marginal sub-3% representation in the States.

Jumping outside the States, Android is confidently the market leader growing share. In Great Britain, Android controls 58.2% of the market, followed by the iPhone with 28%.

In Europe, Android jumped to an even more impressive 67.1% while the iPhone is a distant second with 16.5%.

Interestingly, Kantar thinks that for the week or so of availability, the iPhone 5 has swung the stakes in favor of Apple:

“We can see that in markets with a large number of existing Apple customers, sales have already seen a significant boost. We expect this momentum to be fully realized in the next set of results,“ Kantar analyst Dominic Sunnebo said.

The phone market in Q3 by operating system

1. US market

2. Great Britain market

3. Europe

4. Australia and others