PHONE MAKERS selling Android powered smart-phones have been doing extremely well.

According to beancounters at the mobile and wireless research firm Isuppli, smartphone manufacturers shipping devices running Android were among the fastest-growing handset brands in the second quarter.

HTC's Droid phones pushed its second quarter shipments up by 63.1 per cent above first-quarter shipments. Close behind was Samsung, whose Galaxy line of Android phones were up by 55.6 per cent in the second quarter over the first quarter.

Every outfit that put a bit of effort into selling Android phones has found that the OS has paid off, Tina Teng, senior analyst for wireless communications at Isuppli said.

"From the spectacular growth of HTC and Samsung, to the steady advances of Motorola, Android is the secret sauce for smart phone growth for many companies in 2010."

Nokia increased its market-leading share to 39.7 per cent in the second quarter, up from 38.5 per cent. Runner-up Research in Motion's market share was 18.5 per cent, down slightly from 18.8 per cent.

Jobs' Mob managed third place, but its market share fell to just 13.9 per cent in the second quarter from 15.7 per cent in the first quarter. Isuppli thinks that this is due to the transition from the Iphone 3GS to Iphone 4. However all of the hardware and supply problems with the Iphone 4 can't have helped much