The smartphone industry is taking the world by storm. What launched as an online shop for iPhone users to download applications for their iPhones has today created a huge marketplace - an entire ecosystem where developers create applications for the iPhone users and who in turn pay money, thus creating revenues for both Apple and the mobile app developers. 

The opportunity in this traffic ultimatum has brought the giants of Internet into the mobile space. The biggest among them has been Google's Android. Android is an open source alternative to the iPhone and thanks to the lower cost is expected to win over many more users than Apple. WIth higher volumes, Google can expect to make much more out of sale of free as well as paid apps to these users of Android handsets. 

Unlike Apple which brought its iPhone more than two years back, it is still early times for Android and it has not seen actual traction. Today Android constitutes way lesser market share than Apple. However Android could soon be among the most popular mobile OS platforms in the world. 

According to a study by Gartner, Android could well be more popular than iPhone in a matter of three or four years. As per this study, Android could well garner over 14% market share, slightly higher than iPhone's market share of 13.5%. By 2012, Android could well be the second most popular mobile OS in the world. This could mean there could be another ecosystem created with the Android market nurturing many more developers who could sell their apps for the Android users.